strange starting systems

[Puke]

Has anyone else run into some strange starting systems? I started up a 2 player hotseat game the other day to show some friends the game, and we got some odd things.

one person had 3 starting systems for 3 homeworlds, one was a black hole system with the planet two sectores from the core, one was a nebula system with some planets floating here and there, and one was an asteroid system with an dead red star, with a couple planets strewn through the asteroids.

this is strange, I thought. I have never seen any of those system types with planets in them before, certainly not asteroid or black hole systems. just to make sure, i loaded up a saved game on a huge map, built some nebula-purging ships, and proceded to clear out every nebula system I could find just in case I was missing some hidden jackpot of planets. guess what i found? nothing! (duh).

so ah, what gives? is it a bug in hotseat mode? I have only tried one PBEM game and it did not have the same problem. any ideas?

[Jubala]

I have seen AI homeworlds in such situations in small quadrant lots of player games. My guess is the placing routine ran out of "normal" systems to place them and just dropped them down where there was space.

[Resident Alien]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Jubala:
I have seen AI homeworlds in such situations in small quadrant lots of player games. My guess is the placing routine ran out of "normal" systems to place them and just dropped them down where there was space.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

That's it I think. In one start I saw while doing some experiments I had 3 of my planets with a couple of enemy planets in a black hole system. That was an extreme setup with 10 planets per player, many computer players and neutrals on a small map. I wonder if ships would drift away from the planets into the black hole as soon as they are build? I didn't try it out.

[greghacke]

Nothing gets pulled into the black hole until it leaves the planet's area. They are actually awesome planets to possess. Great for research and intel. The enemy finds it difficult to attack them if they are other players and AI won't even enter the sector...

Hrmmm... maybe build a ship yard and some station ship yards to develop a rocking armada from there...