[Quikngruvn]

If an empire sealed itself in a system (or systems) cut off from the rest of the galaxy, and the empire had no colonies outside the sealed zone, and no other empires had colonies inside the sealed zone... then intelligence wouldn't work. For there to be contact between two races, there has to be a known path between any colonies of both empires. In this scenario, no such path exists, thus no intelligence is possible.

But... while no one can get into the sealed zone, the empire in question can't get out either. At least not till they scrap their system shield. 'Course, then there would be at least a small window of opportunity that a player worth his salt could take advantage of... have a warp point-opening ship on standby and open the warp point before the empire can finish a new system shield.

Or, the empire can stay in its little sealed zone, which is probably small compared to the rest of the galaxy. So the rest of the galaxy builds up the larger space and eventually outstrips the limited area of the sealed empire, and then victory conditions (if set up) can kick in.

Quikngruvn