What is wrong with not trying to spread across the whole galaxy? Maybe they like to be a bit more compact. It is easier to defend a smaller territory, after all. Or maybe they just stop building colony ships when others begin to build up a military. Redistribution of resources.

It makes no sense. IE Arceans spread like locusts, they spread as long as there are planets open to colonize, even when they build them in the center of my terrotory. Draths/Thalans do nothing, just a couple of initial colonies and end of story.

Ok first hand, its nice to see differences between the civs, some spread, some do not. Nice. But at the end, it comes all down to economy input and research output. THe more colonies you have, the better. There is no reason not to colonize some adjacent worlds, if there is noone nearby

With the current "script" strategy, the Drath and Thalans are always the first civs to vanquish in my games. I always try to save the Drath as I like them, but it dont work al lthe time

As said, seeing some differences is nice (god I hate this arceans, they colonize wherever they please) ubt not do colonize worlds in neutral space is just weird.

ya i noticed the same thing the Thalans Humans and Drengins didnt expand to more then 10 colonies. (and this is in a massive sized map).

WIth the latest beta I've had two games where, well into the game, one of the Ais had yet to build any ships with a weapon on them.

I'm not talking early game, this was about 3 years into the game. The drath had lots of ships with 5 defense on them ,but not a single ship with an attack. I marched through their 8 planet empire with one ship

My approach to the game is probably poor but I just raise industrial capacity and research to maximum so they are at 100% each (Meaning Military and Social are 0%) and research as much as possible quickly as possible then selling all the new techs to the aliens (For cash or IPs if I'm feeling up for it) making up for the money I've just lost from my economy. This though means my colony never develops until I raise Social and I fins myself loosing ground in the race for colonies but then I use the money raised to form my army. I tend not to colonise.

the thalans and drath are not using this strategy, so this is not valid

Not true. Colonising a planet involves personnel expenditure from an existing well-estabilished planet, which cuts your tax income somewhat. There is monetary expenditure in paying for the production/research on a new colony that is unlikely to have significant economy bonuses, as well as any quick-buying you do. There's definately a time-delay in recouping your losses incurred from colonising a planet, especially if it is a low PQ planet with few special bonuses. You can also over-stretch your territory, so if you're trying to defend against someone you've now got even larger borders to patrol/protect. Too rapid an expansion can cripple your economy and leave you significantly behind. There's a lot to be said for consolidating your powerbase before expanding, unless you've got a 'frisky' race then thanks to the breeding you should be ok with fast expansion.

I dont speak about some cripled worlds, but pq10-17. They pay off in the late game, the Arcean-Locusts know. Why not the others? In the very beginning like anything is bad, the one or two more colonies are no big difference. And Im also speaking about some years into the game. I dont bother with the "colony rush race". BUt after like 2-3 years, the mainworlds should be "stabilized" enough so the empire can support that few new pq10+ worlds. It is actualy the only way to survive.

The Arceans and Altarians are the big spreader-outers for me, although recently I think the Iconians have started swapping places with the Altarians in that regard. The Yor, Drath, and Thalans seem to be less intent on spreading out as much as possible, although the latest game I started is seeing the Drath acquire a good amount of territory.

Really, though, all I know is that I hate the Arceans and Altarians/Iconians with a passion.

Just for the heck of it, I played on beginner on a medium sized map. I run in to the Arceans, and they only had two planets! After building up some intelligence, I saw that they were furiously building colony ships, but not sending any of them out to colonize!!!! What the heck?!?

...Oh, yeah, I've noticed how the Arceans are like locusts, too. But the Iconians and the Thalans are the ones like shy puppies and don't colonize.

You know, if you can't really afford to expand (from tax base dilution), you can always stake your claim to the planet with a skeletal colony force (ie, 1 colonist), and then go back to fill up the planet later.

I don't see why that'd cost you too much, seeing as there's no other ways to stake your claims on a planet.

Unless you're talking about higher base maintenance.

Actually I don't care if races colonize or not as long as I get a good challenging game. But I can tell from experience which race colonizes alot and it's non other than the Altarians with their influence bonus.

V interesting cos I always think that the Torians are the "best" colonizers.

There are some races which always seem to start in bad positions... The Thalans are the worst for this... I wonder if there is just a random thing going on or whether the location of start is "rigged".

Wow,

You guys are too nice ....
Worry about the AI start locations on the map ????
For me - it seems like every time that ...
I GET THE CRAPPY START !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
and gotta fight back just to get evensteven .....
I play on Challenging Level ....
If that matters ....