I always play new games in "Beginner" mode and was upset that not  only did aliens spawn nearby, it was hostile aliens (apparently minor races, since they weren't in the list of opponents I picked) who attacked my survey ship. While tweaking the RNG, maybe also tone down the likelihood of hostility at lower levels?

I just wanted to chime in that I too experienced this just yesterday (I'm on the "normal" alpha branch not the test branch, fyi) I started around 25 new games, all galaxy settings at default but with only 6 opponents selected.

At no point did I ever get a starting sector with fewer than 2 opponents. (the one thing I was changing is I used the new version of GC3's "Knowledgeable" trait so I could immediately see where the other civs were) occasionally I got a sector with three and in one case four opponents, but never fewer than two in my starting sector. but I did notice several other ai civs getting solo sector starts, so it seems possible to happen for them, but perhaps there's something that forces some opponents to spawn in your starting sector?

Also, let me just add that I'm already having a load of fun in this game, it's awesome!

If I've understood correctly, a sector is like a map from e.g. galciv3. So a small sector would be the approximate size of a small galciv 3 map and a large sector would be the approximate size of a large galciv3 map.

I think the player should be able to customise their starting sector start as much as possible. I agree with Larsenex that there should be a maximum number of civs per sector depending on size. So for example a small sector would have a maximum of 2 or 3 civs and a large sector would have a maximum of 5 or 6 civs. RNG would determine the actual number of starting civs in any given sector. So for example in a large sector there's a chance that no other civ spawns, or only 1 civ spawns or the maximum number of civs spawn or any number inbetween.

I also think that if the player doesn't want to be at the mercy of the RNG they should be able to choose how many civs start in their sector. If they want to be the only civ that starts in their sector then they should be able to select 0. If they want the maximum number of civs for their chosen sector size then they should be able to select whatever that number is.

This would probably be helpful for modding as well e.g. if u wanted to make a Star Trek mod you'd want to be able to select how many civs start in any given sector. I'm sure Star Trek modders would love to be able to create the actual Star Trek map in galciv4 with all the factions in their correct starting positions.

I also agree with Larsenex's other suggestion of being able to choose the minimum spawning distance of other civs to the player's capital.

I created a Large map with 2 opponents, and both spawned in my own sector, each about three star systems away; nothing in any other sector. Very frustrating; like others, I wanted to establish myself well before interacting with any other civilizations.

Ya I've played not many about 5 and 3 on the Immense size and the Drengin are one star away all but 1 time