Well, I think that blockading ought to be a bit more detailed than it currently is. Blockade running would be a joke if there was only one ship in orbit of the whole planet. Especially if it was a slow ship with no weapons. A blockade should be a percentage penalty based on the size, speed, and firepower of the orbiting fleet. And I agree, if a race has only one planet a blockade should do nothing at all.
As for shipyards, if the planet with a shipyard is blockaded, why can the shipyard draw on empire-wide resource storage and harvesting to construct ships? Shouldn't a blockaded world be limited to using only its own resources for construction?
But the biggest problem is that the score is calculated in a rather poor manner, so the AI thinks it's way weaker than it really is, and rolls over and plays dead too fast.
It also doesn't defend itself very well. I don't think you should be able to sail up to a homeworld and blockade it without the AI putting up a decent fight. Maybe giving out fighters as a starting tech.
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