How Many Empires?

[Arbitrary Aardvark]

How many empires can the game support at one time? I'm thinking of starting a new game with a large (255 planet) map, but I don't want to do that if we can only have 20 races at a time. (I don't like it when empires are too spread out.)

[PvK]

20

[Suicide Junkie]

The game supports 20 empires.

However, if you do the division, that leaves 12 systems for each player, plus 15 up for grabs.

subtract out the black holes, nebulae, and other assorted uncolonizables, and you are left with quite small empires!
You will certainly not be too spread out.

[Gandalph]

With a Large (255 systems) and 20 players, you can expect contact within 15-20 turns. Space is at a premium and the AI will try to spread, so it does make for an interesting game.