SE's Best Quality, And How to Improve It

[dmm]

what do you do? Here's an idea, feel free to bash it as much as you like. Suppose the following:
a) AI players are plentiful: 25, maybe even 50
b) mediocre planets are plentiful
c) asteroid fields are plentiful and worth developing
d1) AIs don't like colonizing in "their" systems
d2) but they don't totally freak out about it
d3) unless it gets "too much", then they freak out
e) cheap small exploratory probes are default tech
e1) maybe cloaked? extra-fast? solar-powered? unmanned?
e2) definitely unarmed
f) AIs form lots of gradually-improving alliances
g) AIs react negatively toward attacks on allies
g1) reaction is mild if ally is casual acquaintance
g2) reaction is strong if ally is firm friend

If this could be implemented, I think that (if the parameters were set correctly) it would set up a galaxy that would gradually become well-populated, technologically advanced, very interconnected, and incredibly unstable. Woohoo!!

So, what do you think? Is this do-able right now? Would it work? Has it been tried already?