strange starting systems

[Puke]

Has anyone else run into some strange starting systems? I started up a 2 player hotseat game the other day to show some friends the game, and we got some odd things.

one person had 3 starting systems for 3 homeworlds, one was a black hole system with the planet two sectores from the core, one was a nebula system with some planets floating here and there, and one was an asteroid system with an dead red star, with a couple planets strewn through the asteroids.

this is strange, I thought. I have never seen any of those system types with planets in them before, certainly not asteroid or black hole systems. just to make sure, i loaded up a saved game on a huge map, built some nebula-purging ships, and proceded to clear out every nebula system I could find just in case I was missing some hidden jackpot of planets. guess what i found? nothing! (duh).

so ah, what gives? is it a bug in hotseat mode? I have only tried one PBEM game and it did not have the same problem. any ideas?