Warning this is heavily opinionated and may feel like a rant which is not its purpose. It mostly deals with my suggestions as alternatives to the recent update.
1. Duration of the TEC tax/pop/trade debuff is too long. I would suggest 120 seconds for trade or reduce to 50% (stackable) at 300 seconds per hit. Pop should be 300-480(at most) seconds.
2. Duration of the Vasari building shut down is too long, a single gun repeat firing can take down the defenses of a planet. I suggest 60-90 seconds or enabling repair while disabled and setting the limit to 120 seconds. The phase lane thingy should last for 5 minutes. Ships could be captured for maybe 30 seconds.
3. The advent weapon is useless if the enemy has too much culture. It should disable broadcasters in the well hit and apply a -50% debuff to neighboring gravity wells. Maybe add a 100-250 antimatter drain aspect too. Grants a 5 minute sensor probe regardless of actual culture. (maybe an alternate firing option on this last option.)
4. All super weapons can target any normal size gravity well.
5. Do not limit the number of super weapons. Balance them.
6. Superweapon autocast policy can be set to an even spread of attacks across all systems, focus on borders, Focus on good planets, or focus on planet X.
7. AI needs help in realizing the value of auxiliary governments. I might make an administrative structure that costs 0 logistics slots that has some buffs based on a race and has the same buff. It would also work to have the AI prioritize that upgrade.
8. AI needs to attack non-border planets with superweapons.
9. Add a tier to Cap ship max (At 22) and Fleet Supply max at (3000) with more options in game set up as to the ration. If my old dying laptop computer can handle 6+ race mods, I don't think minidumps would become a problem for most people because of this change.
10. Corvettes, which I initially liked, are being debuffed into the position of having no effect on the status quo. They may have no value in combat if this continues. The initial 1 supply, weak ship was fairly effective against some things but otherwise died a lot; it basically fulfilled a role. Imbalance can be countered by giving everyone the same imbalance, and will be necessary for any strategic change. Right now it feels like you are remaking scout ships progressively.
11. The TEC loyalist 15 supply superweapon tech is almost completely useless with the superweapon cap. Change the tech to +10 defense slots or something.
