Why can't I choose the number of AI?

[MrDeity]

My favorite part of this game is the relaxing exploration and research aspects. The wars and diplomacy with other AI factions don't really interest me much. So I want to create a game with only one AI empire in it, and a huge galaxy to explore.

When I create a custom game, even if I set the number of AI empires to 1, I inevitably discover that I'm quickly sandwiched in between numerous AI empires in the game (white color faction names). Is the game broken? Why can't I limit the number of AI empires? Why is it ignoring my game setting of only 1 AI empire?

I'm still fairly early in my current game where I selected only 1 AI empire in the custom game settings, but already I see 7 different empires surrounding me...

[Orion Invictus]

How many fallen empires? How many marauders? What are the origins of those AI empires?

[Dustreaper]

Then you have set the settings wrong. You can easily disable all ai's.

[MrDeity]

I want max fallen empires and marauders. I turned those to max (5 I think). I don't mind AI that doesn't expand and doesn't wage war over new territories. It's the AI Empires setting I set to only 1, but somehow there's a lot of them in my game.

I'm certain I set maximum AI empires to only 1. I even restarted 3 times thinking I screwed it up somehow, but it's still broken.

I count 10 different AI empires now. Maybe it's one of the DLCs that broke the game? I have all the DLCs.

[Dustreaper]

Can you upload a screenshot of your galaxy settings?

[Reor]

Originally posted by SirDeity:

I want max fallen empires and marauders. I turned those to max (5 I think). I don't mind AI that doesn't expand and doesn't wage war over new territories. It's the AI Empires setting I set to only 1, but somehow there's a lot of them in my game.

I'm certain I set maximum AI empires to only 1. I even restarted 3 times thinking I screwed it up somehow, but it's still broken.

I count 10 different AI empires now. Maybe it's one of the DLCs that broke the game? I have all the DLCs.

Maybe the AI got one of the Origins that requires other empires to exist? (Hegemony, the new MSI related, The one where you are a Vassal etc)
You can check the Origin of the AI in the diplomacy screen.

OR they are (were) Primitives that managed to reach Space age by the time you found them.
Not that uncommon if you rev up the number of Primitive species in the Galaxy and some of them are atomic / early space age at game start.
Had a game once where it was just me and max number of Primitives, because i wanted to RP some kind of fallen stagnant empire, but a ton of empires popped up WAY earlier than expected and even locked me out of exploring huge chunks of the galaxy.

[MrDeity]

Is there a way to show galaxy settings after the game is already started?

[EleventhStar]

no, but the game should remember the same settings if you go to the menu and start a new game.

[Dustreaper]

Originally posted by SirDeity:

Is there a way to show galaxy settings after the game is already started?

The only way is to open a txt file somewhere in the files.

[MrDeity]

Originally posted by Reor:

Originally posted by SirDeity:

I want max fallen empires and marauders. I turned those to max (5 I think). I don't mind AI that doesn't expand and doesn't wage war over new territories. It's the AI Empires setting I set to only 1, but somehow there's a lot of them in my game.

I'm certain I set maximum AI empires to only 1. I even restarted 3 times thinking I screwed it up somehow, but it's still broken.

I count 10 different AI empires now. Maybe it's one of the DLCs that broke the game? I have all the DLCs.

Maybe the AI got one of the Origins that requires other empires to exist? (Hegemony, the new MSI related, The one where you are a Vassal etc)
You can check the Origin of the AI in the diplomacy screen.

OR they are (were) Primitives that managed to reach Space age by the time you found them.
Not that uncommon if you rev up the number of Primitive species in the Galaxy and some of them are atomic / early space age at game start.
Had a game once where it was just me and max number of Primitives, because i wanted to RP some kind of fallen stagnant empire, but a ton of empires popped up WAY earlier than expected and even locked me out of exploring huge chunks of the galaxy.

This sounds like what you described where the primitives are popping up as FTL species way faster than anticipated. I'll try disabling or significantly lowering the number of primitive empires next time. Thanks! I didn't even consider that possibility. I did notice there was a big open area of the galaxy I thought I had locked down because I claimed the only entry systems, then all of the sudden a empire with 3-4 systems suddenly appeared there.