[Fian]

"Another UG, please no from this poster. "
Maybe I don't know that much about internet board etiquette, but is it standard fare from this board to tell people to stop posting? Disagreeing with me is fine, but to tell me to stop posting? I think that is bad manners. It is true that I am not part of the SE4 Elite, as I am still in the middle of my first game. I would think the views of newcomers would be a valuable insight to development, assuming they are truly interested in expanding their playerbase. Anyways, in regards to what you posted:

"I can't see how this is any less micromanagement. "
Well, for example. Currently if you want to improve the atmosphere/minerals of a world, you have to scrap some of your existing facilities (the number depends on how quickly you want to terraform) build terraforming facilities. Occasionally check back to see if the terraforming is complete, and when it is, scrap the terraforming facilities and rebuild your original facilities. Multiply this by 100+ planets in your solar system, and you have a micromanagement nightmare. It would be better if such things were not assigned to facilities at all, but were just something in your build queue or a priority in one of your sliders.

"And auto-moving population would drive me NUTS. The AI ministers are stupid enough as it is without removing the ability to turn them off."
I don't think you are understanding me here. Like other units, you would build let's say 50 population transports. You never see these 50 population transports, all you see is a number on your Empire Status screen that says you have 50 population transports with none engaged. Then when you tag 100 million of a population to be moved, it will take your 50 population transports 5 turns to move 50 million people, so 10 turns to move all 100. If you were to assign another 100 million to be moved somewhere else, those would have to wait until the first 100 million were moved (or you could start moving both simultaneously at a slower rate) before the next 100 million were moved. There really isn't much of an AI involved here, it is more of an algorithm that determines how quickly the population is moved. Fuel and Troops are similar, although in their case I imagine a supply line drawn on the screen, showing the hypothetical path that the troop transports take. If you manage to move your fleet over one of the wormholes that the supply line takes, you will have blocked the supply line and cut off support to the enemy fleet.

"Why would ship's crews be doing invasions? Dedicated troop transports make more sense"
Someone has never seen the original Star Trek and Captain Kirk in action. (: OK, seriously, I agree that it would make more sense if the ship's crew was not involved in ground invasions. Maybe you just have an optional troop cargo container added to a ship (like you do now) and that container is restocked by the units you build at your colonies. The rate of restocking depends on how many ships you have in your troop fleet and how far your fleet is from a supply depot. Of course, you would have to still build troops at your colonies in order for there to be troops to send to your fleet to restock.

"Already can be done. Empire Options screen. It'll show little S, Y, and R for space port, space yard, and resupply depot."
Thanks for the tip. I will be sure to use it in my game.