The first game I did post-Yor had absolutely zero habitable planets.

Pretty sure the math will be fixed next patch; one of the devs has already 'fessed up to accidentally getting a value reversed, or inverted, or whatever.

the file is mapsetupdefs

and here is the current settings

<HabitablePlanets>0.05</HabitablePlanets>                     none

<HabitablePlanets>0.01</HabitablePlanets>                     rare

<HabitablePlanets>0.10</HabitablePlanets>                     uncommon

<HabitablePlanets>0.30</HabitablePlanets>                     occasional

<HabitablePlanets>0.40</HabitablePlanets>                     common

<HabitablePlanets>0.60</HabitablePlanets>                     abundant

so right off the top it looks like none and rare are mixed up

the next question is what does this mean imo this implies that setting habbitable planets to rare will give you 1 in 100 planets 

ive also noticed that even in high settings planets surrounding stars near your home system tend to be 0 

I have started a game on uncommon and it seems to be about what I expected for rare. Huge map, 6 players and I have 3 nice planets in addition to home planets, about 60-70 turns in. I have only found 2 players so far. Playing random intelligence, the Altarians have the same number and the orange guys (I forget their name are lagging with only one.

Both are ahead of me in power. I assume because they are already building fleets and I am relying on lost cutters, defenders etc. I have no trade lag because I am trading found money for all their tech. The AI is nearly always almost dead broke. They must rush buy everything they can. No doubt they are valuing tech as you would expect a computer to do but it still seems kind of cheap when you can buy 7-8 techs for a the translator tech, a lost scout and 5-600 credits.