[Puke]

totally random wither it goes to anohter player or becomes free. if its doing it on its own, it has less chance of defecting than if it was PPPd, which in turn has fairly low odds.

it is also random when it will break away after rioting starts. no way to tell.

systems will not go together, each individual planet will form its own empire. They should have the physical chararactistics of the parent race, but are otherwise like a neutral - I think. I think they will have your tech level, but im not sure. I think they use neutral AI files.

if there are already 20 players in the game, they will not form a new empire. this is true wither or not some of those 20 have been previously destroyed.