Did you remember repair centers? Those are vital to any defensive position -- preferably a minimum of 2, as that allows them to repair each other and gives much more in the way of antimatter "reserves" to last out an assault.

THE AI researched that far...    never saw that before

good suggestions, but I'm already doing that stuff and their still getting through. My normal defense is 4 hangers (all bombers) and gauss platforms in groupings of 4 either around the planet or near structures, plus a repair platform and a robotics carrier or two. That's just what I can fit around planets, I can fit even less around asteroids. The problem with that is you spend all your money building defenses and have no money to build and manage your fleets.

I would agree that the whole insurgency tech is a "hurry up and win type thing" But this all started happening barly 2 hours into the game. An AI ened up in a star by itself and climed the tech tree like crazy, it was sending carriers and scouts into my star after 20 min.

I wouldn't mind the rebel attacks if I didn't have to divert all my resources building and re-building defenses as well as building ships and using up my fleet capacity to protect my planets.
The game became all about fighting off the rebels and not fighting the other AI players. Also, wasn't the whole point of phase lanes to keep enemy's from randomly jumping to any planet they want? That's basically what they are doing once the insurgency tech goes into effect. Especially once the rebel fleets keep getting bigger and bigger. When 12 kodiak cruisers appear in your system your defense station don't last very long.

I like the insugency idea, but I think it needs to be toned down. For me, a new planet was being attacked every 6 min and every attack fleet was a little larger. I don't know if that was because more then one AI had the tech or what. The attacks should occure much farther appart, and shouldn't happen until after the ships from the previous attack have been destroyed. Also the size of the attacking fleets shouldn't keep getting bigger the size of the attackers should varry. Have 6 sips one time, 4 ships the next time, and 9 ships the next time ect...
And if the DEVs did intend it to be a "hurry up and win" tech they should make it harder to acheive. Like I said, I AI had it in under 2 hours.

You guys should really try it. Go into your game directory open the galaxy folder, open the random-huge file, copy it and change the values to 7 stars, 100 planets. Then re-name the copy of it so it doesn't overwire the one that's there. And make sure the AI is on hard. I wana know if anyone else is experienceing it.

i highly agree. it should vary...if it doesnt it will get boring very quickly

Well, maybe theres the problem -- thats one big map I wonder if insurgency scales with map size, or just the fact that the AI can get the tech that much quicker and easier?