Forums have fallen into disuse, and discord is where the community is at. Please visit us on discord!
What, you mean more weird than the planets not orbiting the star as time passes?
Also the game proves Darwin wrong! Even if you are not suited at all for the environment you still can become the dominant species on you planet and go to space!
Who says the races that have those planets as their homeworlds are necessarily indigenous to those worlds? The hydrals ruled for a long time, after all, and didn't get to the top of the heap by being the nicest chaps in the system.
What, you mean more weird than the planets not orbiting the star as time passes? At least it's not a Crusader Kings II comet; everything turns to crud when those things show up.
9 sapient species all evolving in the same solar system at the same time (especially on planets where any kind of complex life is exceedingly improbable, like gas giants) is simply too big of a coincidence. MY view is that some external group dumped them there for one reason or another (like !!SCIENCE!!) and the Hydrals were the first to make it (back?) into space. And proceeded to make sure no-one else ever caught up.