I usually play on large maps and was annoyed by the fact that it was completely random how close the other sov started to my position. Some games I would be all by myself for 400+ turns and ave a HUGE dominance over the AI's other times it was me and 5 other AI's within a very small area. I propose adding a starting position distribution based upon map size. Possibly a slider bar so you can determine close, normal, or far. This may be a pet peeve for me, but it seems intuitive to implement.
