Nevermind!
Huuuuuuuuu-rah! I was setting into a dead panic for a moment there. However, it seems that the problem exists only for the Tiger Heart cartel. Judging from the error messages, I'm thinking it is a shiplist error with their starting ship. (Either that, or the server wants to take no chances that Hexx might ever actually log on.)
I can create new accounts with all the other cartels and can do the work I need to do using them. Oh, and I'll get around to fixing the TigerHeart eventually. (Hexx, e-mail me for the bribery address.)
-Herr Burt
I highly reccomend
not disabling AI production and running your server through all game years the server will run to ensure that starting ships are available for AI creation or new human characters in all game years. (i.e. ensure that there is always a ship available in the starting ship bpv range specified in ship.gf and accounting for empire deltas)
Let me know if you'd like me to dig up the metamap settings... DH has them too. (Goes back to Castrin's observations of yonks ago...)
EDIT: here's The Forge's current AI creation settings:
// This section handles the creation of AI ships
[Census]
TargetPopulationToEconomicRatio =0.0025 // (0.0025) This is the ratio of AI ships to current economy of an empire
OrionPopulationRatio =0.1 // (0.1) This is the population ratio for orion pirates.
MonsterPopulationRatio =0.005 // (0.025) This is the poplation ratio of Monsters.
StandardAIBPV =100 //Default AI BPV
MaxAIEcoBonusBPV =2.0 // Higher number will make bigger AI ships for losing empires
MinFuzzAIBPV =0.3 //Minimum random AI bpv level 0.3 = 30% less
MaxFuzzAIBPV =3.0 //Maximum random AI bpv level 2.0 = twice base
ChanceForTwoShips =0.2 //This is the chance for 2 ships for an AI
ChanceForThreeShips =0.05 //This is the chance for 3 ships for an AI
AttemptsToCreateAIInHomeHex =1 //Maximum AI to create in 1 turn
MaxAIsToCreatePerTurn =1 //How many AIs to try to create before giving up
MaxAIsToKillPerTurn =10 //Maximum AIs to be killed in 1 turn before ending phase
AITurnOverRate =1 //
MaxBattlesPerTurn =1 //Maximum number AI battles in a turn before ending phase
CreateAIFrequency =1 // How many AIs to create a second, untill goal level reached
KillAIFrequency =10 // How many AIs to kill a second, untill goal level reached
InitalAILevel =100 // How many AI's to create before game starts
MaxAIsPerEmpire =1 // ( -1 ) Create a fixed number of AIs per empire. -1 means not to use a fixed number.
You can crank up the AI kill rates to achieve a bit of a "self cleaning" effect. (100 instead of 10 for MaxAIsToKillPerTurn
and KillAIFrequency - I think DH did this for the last SG server... the machine must be fast enouch to handle the cpu load though)
Never run the turn clock faster than the time periods specified here (1 second - or MaxAIsToKillPerTurn/KillAIFrequency if the two are not equal), for obvious reasons. Give it at least a few seconds to do its work.