In my first play through I set size to medium had one planet of better than three to send my colony ship to as of the twelve or so stars in the system five were occupied by enemy faction at least three being majors. I am not sure if the fourth and last major was in this sector as my fleet was destroyed by monsters at least three of which were present.
I would like to test this game but I was under the impression that this was a 4X game not a FPS.
Hope the map editor is out soon so I can place opponents at reasonable distances.
This having opps in three of the five closest stars is not typical of the franchise. I thought at first that the opps beelined for me as was typical for GC2 and not uncommon in GC3. Ran into the first about turn five, they were headed to colonize Mars. It was fortunate that my survey ship was near enough to intercept them.