[Jmenschenfresser]

First off, 100 ships isn't actually a "low" limit. 100 dreadnoughts even in the unmodded game take a good number of planets to support them. I'm not even sure why we have a limit that goes up to something like 20000. I have to wonder that if you had 255 systems each with every sector containing a huge mineral rich planet could you build that many. (I'm not going to do the math on that one.) I would say in a decent sized galaxy with 10 players, only the top half could reach that number and most likely only the top couple. Given that they are building top o the line ships.

That being said, I contemplated this sort of game a while back. My reason was a little different. Played in a large galaxy, a limited number of ships couldn't be everywhere at all times...forcing a bit of strategy on the player were his empire to grow beyond the limit. I had the feeling though that it would phase out any smaller designs, as you wouldn't want to waste that slot for something other than the best...as SJ stated.