most important ones are guass , trade ports , refineries and repair stations. Maybe rather then tactical structures it would just be those..and maybe others.

for everything else im not too fussed

Well, I began a game last night where I placed every structure (I had to fight my lazy tendancy!) and I really enjoyed it better. Nothing like spacing your missle defenses out for the unsuspecting invaders to taste when they jump in system! So, the moral of the story is don't be lazy!

I still like the spread out way of thinking. However, it has its downsides. In the game last night I had one jump lane into my home world that led to a star. So, this was the avenue of attack for my enemies. I set up missle defenses, overlapping fields of fire, at the furthest distant out planet. This worked great and I thought I was a genius. However, a pirate raid sped right past those outer defenses and took out my trade center before I could get missle defenses on the closet edge to planetside. So, I learned, once again, about defense indepth and to not be such a cheapo defense builder! Always learning!!! or at least trying to..

The funny thing is the AI will sometimes go after your trade stations, refinery's, and their spawned ships as well (ignoring a wall of gauss's i might add).

Auto position is good for unimportant worlds. Like an asteroid thats in the rear of your empire with a chance of being attacked that is slim to zero. Still, i wouldn't place any defense's with this.

Has anyone noticed that flak frigs make good meat shields? Almost every AI that attacked me in my last few games went straight after my flak frigs. No matter what else was in my fleets (ignoring them as well).

maybe the autoplace function could let you choose between different layouts, how it places buildings. like a cluster of defensive buildings surrounding logistic buildings vs a ring of gauss around the planet plus some hangars. something like a formation for buildings. I mean something along those lines will have to exist when the enemy ai decides how to place structures. so those routines could be used. and again choosing different layouts for defenses but leaving individual placements would be a nice way to manage at a macro lvl if you are too busy elsewhere.

The AI still places structures pretty much the same now as it did in the previous betas. It still tries to block jump points with guns. Even though the jump angles now all but make that tactic useless. Auto place will do the same thing. The last place i want my gauss guns right now is in front of a jump lane.

well, when I posted I was already considering that the ai will get an overhaul and that eventually it will have to have some decent algorithms on where to place structures. and those can and probably will be used.

but again, this was not my main point, my main point was that when you activate autoplace, you can choose between a few layouts, according to what you think is most appropiate in the strategic scope of the game. like a formation, possibly spinnable (i.e. you can rotate the formation to point strong/ weak points where you want). after all, for units sometimes a wegde or line is better, other times, squares or circles are better, depends on what you have in mind. similarily you can designate in advance where everything would go should you decide to construct it and then not bother anymore with indiviual stuff.

The placement AI would work better as 2 rings... the ring around the planet as close as possible would be for placing civ structures... and a slighly farther out ring, (the half range of a gauss turret perhaps) would be where it places defenses.

This way the planet is protected from JUST a few siege frigates lol... they will be spread out, but killing one turret is more painful than flying around ten. Even if the turret loses.

Currently the siege frigate is the greatest AI killer known to TEC or Vasari lol

Planets need an inner ring of gauss's to protect from siege frigs. This isnt an option. It is a must do. Otherwise kiss the planet bye bye when a big pirate raid, or ai with lots of sieges comes. For AI raids it doesnt even have to be a complete ring. Just enough turrets placed in the general direction the ships approach from. Trade ports are your friend here.

Against human players you may have to shift things around depending on what they use against you, or even keep a garrison fleet behind if the world is that important.