Star Ruler 2 had actual cards you used in your diplomacy. Was a really great feature of that 4x game. For example, you could play a card to take an opponents planet. Its been a while, believe there were point costs involved.

The game sounds really interesting (being a Dawn of War 1 and Mech Warrior fan myself). Just missing the various ground units that would give the mechs their scale... there are a few occasions where tanks pop up but not too often it seems and the game probably comes down to mechs duking it out 99% ...

Thanks for creating the mod! I'd suggest having the AI prioritize medium weapons over PD defense weapons. Medium are more versatile. Heavy over medium. The AI hardly ever utilizes heavy weapons and the extra range works better in many situations. Anti-missile added only if there is extra defense slo...

Thanks for the info but no 'in_development' branch showing for me to switch to.

Too late anyway, I'm playing Battletech now. Sometimes cursing is even involved.

Yes, I know the Yoral are much easier than other races. Chose them on purpose as I'm playing on Hard difficulty with these 3 AI mods. Current map. Recently killed off the Ashdar Imperials. Grabbed all of their planets. https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/2438013375547364225/E2174615DF07753265...

Playing the Yoral on hard difficulty. Huge, 85 star box map. My start was close to the middle of the map. Picked the Yoral as I figured this would be difficult with these 3 AI mods. The Ashdar Imperials started a little south of me and declared war very early. Had 5 to 6 planets at the time and they...

Using the Combat, Economy and Research Path AI Mods. Congrats on the excellent work to the mod makers. Think I might have to switch down from Hard difficulty to Normal.

Had a startup crash when I first installed the mods. Started a second time and everything seems to be working fine.

Asteroid carriers! Don't usually play with carriers, didn't realize you could build those with Tinkers. No upkeep cost will also be advantageous.

Hmm, I could try focusing on ships. Very easy to go into negative income with Tinkers. So I'd have to build that up and mines for metal.

Find the other races much easier to win with on Hard difficulty.

Are you all playing on hard difficulty? Huge map, 99 stars, box shape, all of the races.

Usually I get very few colonizable planets nearby. Populate those. Progress some but then the AI attacks with much better ships.

After the DLC, I've tried to play several games on Hard difficulty as Tinkers on Huge maps. Their drawbacks are just too large in the early game. The need to build population eats too much metal and doing it does not compensate for the lack of natural pop growth. Trying to research sprint to the Clo...

Adds to max trade potential (+3 per), and are usable in orbital slots around gas giants and tiny worlds. With improved solar panels can mount a science station in place of the reactor, giving each deployed outpost + 3 trade potential and + 2 science per turn. Good for light colonization of unusable...

You can transport population between planets. That can help with new colonies. Also makes sense to pay for your first factory on a new planet.

There are two techs that add a build slot to all of your planets. So having one factory on a mining planet lets you fill those new slots much quicker.

You also have the flexibility to have your mining planets to build small ships. Useful for transports and troop haulers.

I've played many games on hard difficulty. The different races do have specific weapons they like. AI making balanced fleets? Sometimes? You need something to take out fighters and missiles, otherwise having a balanced fleet doesn't really matter. The AI tends to be poor at building up their planets...