1) The fortifier AI strategy seems very weak and exploitable to me - the AI seems to invest virtually all its resources in static turrets and starbases that just get blown away by bombers and structure busting ships - I would like to see some changes to help the fortifier AI. Some thoughts include:
All of the AIs are very "weak and exploitable" to a multitude of strategies used by a human player. Starbases and bomber spam are the two most common.
They're AIs. They're horrible at strategic decisions. If you want to play a decent opponent, come online (onto ICO) to play against brains instead of silicon!
1a) boosts to starbases: such as cheaper build and upgrade costs, flak defences, and maybe all the starbases should be allowed to move within their grav well - at the moment the fortifier AI wastes loads of resources on these and builds them as glorified turrets that just die to bombers.
Cheaper costs I'm not sure of, but starbase flak upgrades definitely sounds good to me.
1b) have strikecraft that are based on planets and asteroids as home defences that improve with planetary infrastructure - I'm thinking 1 strikescraft squadron for every 2 tiers of civilian infrastructure plus a squadron for each tactical capacity upgrade so a highly upgraded planet could get 4/5 squadrons
A good suggestion, I made a very similar one a couple months ago. It would be nice for planets to have some sort of built-in defense...
2) A boost to the Advent - they seem relatively weaker than the TEC and Vasari to me both economically and in terms of an early military push so here are some of my thoughts on how to boost them.
2a) economic boost for being in your own culture - maybe +10% allegience and +5% resource gathering
2b) allow the advent to harvest resources from asteroid belts in the same way that the other factions can build refineries to harvest them - the resource focus should allow the trade port to function like a refinery
2c) the advent need more military labs to research both flak frigates and long range frigates so they seem to get shafted in the early game - to redress this balance I would like to see the Advent getting easier access to the corvettes compared to the other 2 factions.
2d) The deliverance engine seems really weak compared to the novalith and particularly the kostura cannon - I think it should buff friendly ships and debuff enemy ships too
Although the Advent are said to be somewhat weaker than the other factions, they can still be quite fearsome when used properly. In terms of DPS and durability per resource and supply cost, Advent frigates are the best of all the factions'. Illuminators in particular are unparalleled at taking out enemy fleets, due to a significantly higher overall DPS - so perhaps the Illuminator's research cost is justified.
All factions get flak frigates at the same tier, tier 2.
That said, it would be nice for the Advent to get some sort of economic boost... and their superweapon is horrible as well.
3) Nerf hoshikos please - these things are amazing as mobile repair bays but then they also have the demo bots ability that totally gimps fleets too! Come on, tone down the demo bot ability please - immobilizing fleets and disabling their weapons is too much - how about a non-stackable 25% reduction in speed and rate of fire instead? They are already great as repair bays, the demo bots ability makes them broken in my opinion.
That wouldn't justify 100 AM IMO... demo bots are strong but the opportunity cost is around 600 hull on friendly frigates. That cost wouldn't be worth it I think if the ability only mildly impaired the enemy.
4) I would like alterable combat stances that can be toggled for ships in the tactics section - if anyone has played Xcom Apocalypse then you will know what I'm talking about - the aircraft had alterable engagement stances in the cityscape battles that ranged from aggressive to evasive - I would like to see something similar for Sins too. These are the combat stances i would like to see:
HOLD POSITION - the ship remains stationary
EVASIVE - the ship avoids combat and will move away from enemy ships
CAUTIOUS - the ship will engage enemy ships at a distance - moving within extreme weapons range and not closing the distance any further
AGGRESSIVE - the ship will move as close to the enemy as possible in order to use all its weapons
ESCORT - the ship will remain near target ship/ group of ships and will defend them
If you're worried about your ships not doing their job properly, put them all onto Hold Position and then manage their movement yourself. If you want your fleet to be as effective as possible, you should not be depending on the computer to move your ships for you.
and a way to secure control of gas giants
Use a fleet of your own to defend it and the territory is yours.
Build a starbase there if it's so important.