Question about Pirates, Monsters, and Peacekeepers

What map size are you using? If it's the biggest map and highest hostile settings, I can see it easily hitting those numbers. I have no idea whether there is a cap. I don't even know if it knows which ones are home based to what shipyard and I've seen wandering pirate and space monster (more frequent with pirates) ships going somewhere.

Max map size options and Abundant critters.

As Derek the lead developer has said, "Abundant means Abundant".

So yes, those numbers are probably correct. 

Oh, the numbers aren't really a concern per se, it's more about what happens as time goes on, will they reach a point of starting to impact the game performance. As I am right now, I am watching the critters do their random shuffle for upwards of 2 minutes at the start of my turn.

I've already gone past 200 turns before contacting one of the AI races in the next cluster over. Why? Because right at the gate there are at least two Peacekeeper shipyards and they are pretty much blocking the gate. I managed to squeak in a construction vessel and build a military base right beyond the gate and put in some defense ships, otherwise, I have no idea how long it would take them to break through.

I am noticing the AI races are spending a lot of their construction on ships to beat the critters, but they never seem to destroy the shipyards/nests. Maybe tweaking the AI a bit to actively destroy those is needed?

Have not read a complaint about them slowing down the game but have heard game slow down can be a problem and they would be part of it along with the Space Tribbles err I mean Mimot with their double ship perk. 

+1 to that, I haven't seen any noticeable lag due to the number of ships. Turns can take a little longer by a second or two or something, but otherwise no appreciable lag.

Re game slowdown in general, I have noticed some lag in late game, particularily if you're conquering the whole galaxy and it's more noticeable there when there's fewer civs alive. But that seems to be independent of ship number and is more the 'late game slowdown' curse that affects all 4X games. Though some have a better handle on it than others.

Yea, I've noticed that the AI has a serious problem with cleaning up shipyards. Planets with shipyards from two factions are somewhat common and I've seen ones with three shipyards, but those are less common. Nvm, I thought you meant major civ shipyards. The AI does eventually clean up the hostile shipyards (unless they're Xeloxi), though there's always that one sector or two that has difficulty cleaning things up.

I don't play with abundant pirates/peacekeepers/monsters but I do have some, usually one of each per sector. I have seen the AIs take out their shipyards/nests, but it usually takes quite a while for them to do so.