[God Emperor]

Mephisto,
Looks like it is raw tonnage. What I experienced was encountering old ships based on earlier point defence levels (I modified the AI_Design creation file in the middle of a game and it was a while before I encountered the newly designed ships).
Doh!!

The mod does seem to promote more of a slug it out game, rather than a pelt the AI game.
Anyway, still early days yet, as I've only just got Cruisers (playing in a sparse galaxy really drops the reasearch rate - may have to use the cheaper tech costs I think).

By the way, congratulations on the inclusion of your mod into the latest patch. This will encourage the rest of us to keep tweaking and assure players that Malfador is serious about making this the game the best out.