takamouniverse.com

An interesting thing to have is a regular Census

This could have:

Number of Players
Number of Races (people can have more than one race)
Number of turns processed last turn (shows how active people are)
Number of cybertraded planets
Highest Passive Income
Total number of Planets in Galaxy
Total population of Galaxy (Pops times however much a Pop is worth)
Biggest firepower fleet
Fleet with most fighters
Etc, etc

Randy or whoever could provide this on a monthly, quarterly, or semi-annual basis.

I am reluctant to provide census information because it diminishes the fog of war. Too much intel can be derived from information that is put out. The other concern I have about that is that it discourages the new players. Even though this is a huge galaxy and the ability to hunt another player to exticnction is almost nil, some players begin to believe that their position is hopeless when in fact they are doing well. I have seen it time and time again over the years. Playerrs who are humming right along become convuinced that out there somewhere is a huge alien empire that will squash them at any momment. Of course this fear is fostered by players legitimately sowing disinformation and fear in the communication channels as well. =)

In any case, I am not opposed to player initiated census taking but it is not something I want to devote preceious resources to pursuing right now.

Could you at least say how many player races are there currently?

I don't want to break the fog of war. If there is anyone out there willing to conduct their own census they are welcome and encouraged to advertise for information on the forum and publish their findings on the forum as well.