[geoschmo]

Thought about having some Empire tech available to the splinter Groups, would have to make sure to do it carefully to balance it. Plus that complicates things somewhat as far as making it not as easy for me to setup. Haven't decided yet whether I will do that or not.

I was thinking instead of trying to modify the Empire AI to make them grow or not grow at a certain rate, I would just make them a little bigger at the start than the others, and a lot higher tech, and then let the AI run it normally. The distance should prevent contact before the players are ready. AI aren't very good anyway as we all know. I don't think it would be nessecary to try and keep them artificaaly contained. I would be afraid that if I did that they would be too easy to beat once contact was made.

Beating the Empire wouldn't be the true objective anyway, beating the other players would be.

Geoschmo