The 1v1 random map is unique among the randomly generated maps both in terms of relative size and start positions.  In the 2v2 random map it's possible to start pretty far away from your nearest opponent, but in 3v3 and larger unless you're pocket you should anticipate to be close enough to see immediate action.  It's very rare that you can make that presumption in 1v1; in fact, the closest I've ever seen players start are 6 jumps away in a random 1v1 map.  That's insane given that the map is only 20 planets large.  By the way, that's 10 planets per player, relatively speaking the largest random map generator.

Of course, you know where I stand on pre-set maps as alternatives

Reading through this, your post is more a rip on the current game balance.  I can understand being dissatisfied with Advent, but I find TEC vs Vasari is fine as is.  Once illuminators and scouts take a hit for Advent, I think their advantage won't seem so daunting at all.  TEC have hoshikos, and Vasari... well, they do need something early on, but if they survive to the 5-lab level they get subs.

Simple; if you take damage, shield mitigation goes up.  If you don't take damage, it goes down.  Typically any unit that is focus fired will have maximum shield mitigation after a single volley, which works out to about 65% damage reduction.  It should be noted that mitigation reduces damage to both shield and hull.

I have to disagree with this for the most part.   I've played a lot of 1v1's on ICO and every race can be quite viable given specific strategies. 

The random small map is really the biggest variable in the equation, the map layout varies so much and can really favor one side depending on how it's set up.  One of the biggest problems is the pirate base is sometimes the only link between the two halves of the map.  This will often mean that whoever got the better half has the win.  The other issue is with start position, like whether or not you have a starter asteroid connected to your homeworld, how many mines are available on your near planets, and the number of pirates guarding each planet.  Due to how it's generated these things can be slanted heavily in one side or the other, even mining, or trade bonuses can have a huge effect.

For each of the races in 1v1 there are specific advantages that can create a winning scenario.  For Advent it's fleet, advent ships pound for pound are the strongest and if you can press an early battle as advent, with proper micro and fleet management the other sides just can't compete.   For TEC the advantage is in economy, espescially with the buff to the akkan, if TEC can gobble up enough planets and get trade going, their economic advantage will allow them to roll over just about any opponent in a 1v1 situation.  For Vasari it's all about abusing the mobile starbase.  If you can get one built in a nice choke point system particularly if there are no other paths into your empire it can become an all but impassable barrier for your opponent, then you can tech/econ turtle till the overwheming endgame vasari techs pretty much guarantee victory, with the full tech tree Vasari are pretty much unbeatable with phase gates, RA and the Kostura go anywhere cannon.

You would never want to do balancing on a random map.  You would always want to balance against a non-random map which is mirrored for both opponents.

I strongly disagree.  I think they are the best, or certainly one of the best, support cruisers in the game.  As an old vasari player, I could always only wish that the overseer and subverter stacked up.  Overseers come later in the tech tree, yet are suckier and harder to use (in addition to being more costly and flimsy) than the hoshikos.

Overseers are nice cause unlike all other support curisers their effects stack. warp 10 overseers in next to your dieing starbase/capship and you will see what i mean.... can we say not quite dead yet? lets see hoshikos do that.

and subverters are definatly the hands down best support cruiser in the game. thier shield breaker... that 10% shield mitigation block means that that lv 10 advent cap ship with its 85% shield mitigation is now taking 66% more damage (drops from 85% to 75%)... and thats before the phase missle bypass... can we say 55%  (30+25) sheild (and mitigation) bypass chance? can we imagine guardians dieing with over 1000 shield left EASY?  and Distortion field... whooly cr@*... 20 seconds of free shots per subverter... and if you have a pji and they try to leave... there will be absolutly nothing left of their fleet if you can micro it right.  Using these suckers I WON a 4v1... 2 of those 4 players were considerably more skilled than i was. (course i had the help of 3 lagged out players ais...)

The problem is surviving to the point where you can bring overseers and subverters out.

Correction.  I just downloaded a 4v4 and watched it.  I saw Cykur use a few subverters.  In one instance they all jumped at once and disabled a... (drum roll please...)... extractor!  In another instance they did jump and disable a small group of ships, but it was a very small group of ships that was about to be annihilated anyway, and of course they all jumped and disabled the same group of ships.

If Cykur had been playing himself those subs would have been dead to fighters the minute they hit the grav well, but his opponent didn't know how to micro fighters.

So that's about twice I've seen them used in the last few hundred games, never to any real effect.

Hoshikos have to be among the top two, anyway- while I consider the Overseer more useful for its function, it and the Subverter seem very flimsy for a faction that is supposed to have the most survivable ships.  I've often asked that most of the Subverter (and RA) nerf be revoked. 

However I wanted to discuss what could be a balanced 1v1 map, if the random map isn't considered suitable.  All the features might have to be included, and the map should be a multi, though if the conflict at the star is too prominent it won't work for balance, so the home planets should be in the same system. 

How about this?

There's a small second system to reward research, wormholes are included, the map shouldn't choke up too easily and there are opportunities for trade without having to invest in a starbase.  There's 4 neutrals in the home system, plus one in the other.  I've included every possible type of gravwell except a non-home Terran.  This is just a first attempt though, it could be adapted, or even remade very differently.  It's 28 planets, though I tried to keep it small multis tend to be bigger.   

A bugged game version isn't much good for balance, please fix the Illuminators- and they are too strong even when fixed.

It's on Astax's replays thread.  You were in the south, had an Advent to your left (the southwest), and a TEC on your right (southeast) who wanted you to suicide your fleet on his "BOOM" SB, ha ha.  He kept telling you that if you'd let him blow up your fleet, he'd quit like a good boy, LOL (yeah, right).

Subverters were always my favorite unit from the instant I first played the game.  I just think they were overnerfed, and they provide "too little, too late" when you look at their cost, their flimsiness, their lateness in the tech tree, but mostly their micro-intensiveness.  Compare all that against the TEC robocruiser, and it's the opposite.  Those things come early in the TEC tree, are cheap, aren't flimsy, and require no micro at all.

Basically, my belief is that if a unit is late in the tech tree, expensive, flimsy, and most of all micro-intensive and requires great skill to use, then it had better be devastating in return!

Yes, I agree with the others that RA was overnerfed.  I will say that OP or not, the game was a hell of a lot more fun when you could shoot for RA, or try to stop someone else from doing it!  If it is true that RA was extremely OP, then fine, I accept that.  So don't offer FREE ships, but make it better than it is now.

I would have the returning fleets free, but not at the previous level.  As it is there is a double handicap to the tech, you can't get the ships that you want, and you have to pay part of the cost.  I would like the size of the fleets reduced to the existing point of economic advantage, and made free.  The ships might get scrapped for extra resources, but this is very micro-intensive, and it might be much better that the abuse of the tech be micro-intensive, rather than its proper function.

I'm happy for Subverters to be devasting but require micro as they are an offensive unit, less happy with Overseers.  However both are high tier units and too easily destroyed.  A faction that relies on health rather than shields shouldn't be short of repair methods for some of its ships outside a single capital ship- I cannot understand why Advent get better repair bays.  Perhaps reintegration could be made targetable..?

Have any replays of 1v1 matches between top players been posted?  Ideally we should have 1v1 replays for each of the three combinations of factions, and a win and a lose for each faction- that's at least six.