[dogscoff]

My recommendation for reducing Micromanagement is to look at difrerent mods. For example, look at FQM: It massively increases the number of planets and moons for you to colonise. The one multiplayer game I played under that mod led to micromanagement hell within a few dozen turns because I had so many damn planets. Not that I dislike FQM, mind you- it creates some great maps, but be prepared for some very dense empires.

Personally, I play Proportions. While an average empire in an unmodded game might well have every single planet and moon within eight systems of the homeworld colonised after a hundred turns, a proportions empire after the same number of turns would probably have just a few dozen well-developped worlds in strategic places- although they could easily express control over the same number of systems as in the stock game.

Just my 0.02 local currency.