rebel factions

[apache]

I find rebel factions an interesting part of the game. I know this has been brought up before, but I think they need more strength when they rebel. Multiple planets in the same system should rebel, and maybe even a few ships should rebel with them. I think it should also be proportional to that empire's score/power. A huge empire would have a lot more rebel at once, while a smaller empire might only have a single planet rebel. I don't think this should be some fixed percent, but just some general range. Maybe it could be a rebel empire will take 5%-15% of the parent empire's strength. Perhaps this could even be adjusted for the massochistic player who might want to see 70% of his empire rebel at once and see if he could take it all back.
There could even be different types of rebellions, like a civilian rebellion where mostly planets rebel and only a small portion of ships. Or a military rebellion where only a few planets rebel but a large number of ships rebel. I think it would add a new dimension to the game, and make rebellions much more interesting.
But first, there is a bug that needs to be removed before this will be useful. I have noticed in past Versions, (not yet in this one, but I assume the bug is still there) that there is a maximum of 20 empires in the game. This is fine and good, except that when an empire is destroyed (say a rebellion put down), the empire stays on the list for that game, and even though it is gone, it takes up one empire slot. So if you start a game with 14 empires, and then 6 rebellions happen, thats it. There can't be any more rebellions. I think a lot of people use this bug to their advantage with PPP. The description says it will cause a planet to rebel, but it may or may not join your empire. Of course, if that 20 empire limit has been reached, all successful PPP operations will have that planet joining your empire. So I think that after an empire is destroyed, it should be removed from the list, and a slot opened up for a possible future rebellion.