[Slick]

This is a pain, I agree. One way to limit it is to make some victory conditions. A good one is that when player 1 is XXX percent of player 2. That way, when you are, say, 300% of player 2, you win. If no victory conditions exist, you have to kill off all other players or force them to surrender.

As to how to deal with empire bloat, you have mentioned some things. Others would be putting ships, planets, etc on "repeat orders", or *shudder* using ministers. Or when you have the game comfortably in hand, just concentrate on your fleet movements and let the other things sit - not very efficient, but it will cut down on those long turns.

Slick.