Also, if you happen to select both RARE options for planets & habitables - plus a full-house of Nine Majors - there isn't that much more a limited incode routine can do to fill a map even when Tiny or Immense.

It's true I usually play on small with 4 challengers. So that might be it then. The map is to small.

Thanks for the information

Not so KP, it happened to me at least once (while testing my mod stuff with a full compliment of 9 Majors & 8 Minors on a tiny map)... but, it's an extremely rare occurance. Kinda weird, that' s for sure!

Interesting Zyxpsilon...  The most crowded map I've played is tiny, 1 opponent, 8 minors, rare everything.  I'm curious to try with 9 opponents and see where the minors end up.

Sentient species taste better...

Just finished a large/painful game on the TA Beta that had an interesting twist.

I was a Custom race and the nearby Krynn (the most powerful race in this game) declared war on me. They had the upper hand and none of the majors offered me any help, but then a minor race stepped in and gave me "some of their finest starships". These ships were powerful - much stronger, in fact, in both attack and defense than anything I or the Krynn had. They turned the tide of battle around for me. Afterwards, I kept that minor under my protective wing for the rest of the game in gratitude for their help.

In all my games, I've never seen the minors to do anything like this before. Has anyone?

Minor race was the Paulos. They didn't appear to be a late game minor, and were off on the other side of the galaxy.