This.

While I also would like some more substance, or more differentiated states of relationships and treaties / trade options, I'm glad they develop an expansion that seems to be geared more towards play vs. AI instead of a super-balanced multiplayer addon.

      No one challenged me on the fact that the whole add-on is pointless once you get down to the last two teams. There should be something in this add-on that you can use single player end game.

     The Devs stated that this add on was designed w/ locked teams in mind, but I don't see it.

Just as a matter of interest, are you using the hotfix to beta 3 or just the original beta 3 installment.

I say this because the game I am just playing, ( admittedly I have not completed this game yet, and It is the only game I have played since the hot fix was downloaded). An unlocked teams against 8 random AI game. I have been finding it quite challenging to get beyond a peace treaty with a neighboring AI. Every time I send in an envoy to 1 of his GW's, another AI, that I am warring with, seems to be going out of its way to ping off my envoys. This seems to me to be a direct attempt by my enemy to thwart my attempts at forming pacts and an alliance with another faction.

Maybee it s just me, how I play and have the teams unlocked or something. Or perhaps this is one of the differences between original beta 3 and the hotfix for it. But I'd have to say that it has'nt been too easy and to simple for me.

I am liking this aspect though.

Very true javajeff, the issue though is not the amount of content, it's the type/quality of content being implemented.

Envoys are of some use in culture warfare... how about if the envoy ship was also some sort of archaeology specialist ship as well, so you could get a discount on exploring a planet with one in a gravwell, would that be enough?

Why shouldn't AI appear in multiplayer if it gets good enough?  If the AI starts to make single player more enjoyable it becomes more viable in multiplayer as well.  Just increasing resource cheats won't help if an AI replacing a human won't get the cheat, however.  Better singleplayer might make it easier to have a 3 sided multiplayer game, with a few AI added to prevent a simple 2v1, though the continually requested feature where only a limited number of players could win an unlocked game would have to be implemented..   Then negotiation skills would be tested in multiplayer as well...  Three-sided multiplayer games are a non-starter without a few AI, and after all the game will always have militia... perhaps some players would find it more amusing to finish off their opponents by proxy, like your feed type in current multiplayer?! 

I have to say that I think Diplomacy makes this game a much better single player experience.  I think they are going in the perfect direction.  Does anyone play Civilization IV?  I think that is what they are trying to do with an RTS.

I honestly don't think the biggest gripe is lack of military additions. I think it's the exact opposite. The current diplomacy feature doesn't feel like it's changed gameplay much. It's still the same basic strategy "eliminate all other opponents through conquest". Diplomacy is only giving buffs instead of new strategic methods.

We'll see when the new victory condition comes out.

   What if most tech upgrades were a structure instead of just a marked tab? This way they could be targeted, for instance what if the Settlers upgrade was a civilian starbase or a targetable city on the surface of the planets?

   Armour pacts and such would be specalized factories as opposed to just a tech tree option. This could include any tech that would require research.

Yes, we got what? 3-4 ways of "improving" relationship now?
I don't think that's "Multiple" enough.
Tactical solution round pirates? Sure, it adds some flavour, but come on, they've added 1 new function to the pirates, the possebilities that presented was and is limited, you send them on a raid to a planet of your choice, finito, that was all folks.

And yes, the AI tends to spam convoy ships, I like it, means he has less room for combat ships, and when i declare war on him, he doesn't go and destroy the convoys, to free up space. No, he retrieves them to his planets. And I don't have to care about 'em, because they can't do a squid towards me.

As I see it. If there is to be some talk about diplomacy, then there needs to be some talk about politics.
And this game lacks politics.

My 2 cents.

Edit: How exactly is the diplomacy aimed towards singleplayer? The AI doesn't use the new pirat function, as far as I know, they don't build the Super weapon. They can make pacts, but that's about it.
The Super Weapon is set on auto fire automatically when it is build, so please add the possebility to build it, to atleast the viciouse settings.
And enable them to use the pirates aswell.

The AI has been getting a lot of work internally the past few weeks for Diplomacy. It's reached a point where I'm finding it difficult to win with just a few Hard AI's present.

^Hah!

I REALLY want to see a spy ship with some cool espionage abilities.