With TA on an immense galaxy with few stars, massochistic difficulty, I have been going at it as the Korx and doing pretty well before I start realizing I am in a ghost town.

Not much expansion going on with other races...my only clue is a Drengin colony ship beached/stuck on an astroid field. Quarterly report shows me with an economy of 340! And I'm like "whoa. " I have a few tier one econ buildings going up but thats about it; nothing to justify such a rating on the difficulty I am running...so then I make contact with the Drengin and the Torian and neither of them has a single tech to offer in trade (tech trading is on) and the Torian has managed to colonize four planets, and neither of them have any military to speak of. To put things into prospective...I already have 12 colonies and am researching habitat improvement...three resource star bases...etc...in other words, its a good ways into the game. What's up? Anyone having similar experiences with TA?
PS-the only thing I can think MIGHT have precipitated this is that I customized everyones abilities before going in (giving most the fed political/econ bonuses, etc.). I did the best I could for the other races (not intentionally hamstringing them, etc.).

Can anyone shed some light?

Thanks,
Boog