Richard,
It would be good if in the next patch some of the races that have been tweaked by various people (eg the mod pack crew) were used as the base files.
The current basic game files such as Research and DesignCreation are really quite weak compared to what the modders are bringing out. Also, I have found that many of the other files that have been produced(eg Construction_Facilities and Construction_Vehicles) significantly improve the AI's play.
This will save the modders the effort of having to check their files for compatability (and trying to guess what subtle changes have been made) and the Users of having to overwrite the files that come with the patch.
Just a thought
PS: It would also be helpful to the AI if the four item research queue bug was fixed. Early on, whilst research points are short and there are lots of theoretical techs to research, the block that forces the AI to have four items in the research queue puts them at a significant disadvantage to a human opponent. Whilst we can research Physics say, and then immediately put Shields at the front of our queue the next turn, the AI is forced to research the three other techs currently in the queue (usually including expensive theoretical techs) before it is allowed to research Shields.
[This message has been edited by God Emperor (edited 22 March 2001).]