so now that  on a large /huge standard 8 player game, 5 systems is max (+1 and +2 from tech) you can have without overcolonization , how should i expan as cravers? how do i get religious party to be strong enough to force content? should i invest much more into happines tech/laws or just try to get Religious law? i need to constantly conquer as cravers, especially in a competetive MP game

(i play MP only. SP only as practice runs)

Well, it will be changed soon according to the balance mod. You will be able to colonize morep lanets more easily. Also, i don't know if you have noticed, since last patch, there is a new system improvement that increase the colonization limit by 1. It's only buildable on a level 4 colony upgrade, cost 1000 influence and stuff. So, with this improvement, you can in theory build an infinitly big empire without happiness decreasing.

I really do like the changes to the number of planets, but they have been causing some problems for me too.  Being able to expand endlessly after getting a level 4 colony is a great system.  However, races who depend on early game expansion are really hit hard by this.  Cravers can get a really high initial FIDSI, but without getting resources to upgrade system levels at the same rate, they are stuck.  Additionally, the Riftborn can expand early since they don't have to ship food to colonies, but they get hit really hard by the wall too.  The planets they settle can have nice resources on them, but you have to dig much deeper in tech to unlock them.  Thus, you can't build up a stockpile or buy enough resources from the market and just sit idly without improving your empire.  They are hurt even more since good Riftborn planets generally have lower population slots, so they need to go wide.