[MisterBenn]

I have a little feedback too - I am playing with a custom Crystalline race on 0.93/1.08, Hard AI and Low AI Bonus.

I've played enough turns to research Crystallurgy 2, Crystaline weapons 1. I have just got Light Hull Construction 3 and am beginning on Medium-Light 1.

It seems that my home system borders that of the Jraenar(sp?) chaps - and they wasted no time whatsoever in going on the assault! They sent me all sorts of messages laying claim to my system, and while I was at the point of researching Crystallurgy 2, their first fleet turned up.

This fleet had 10 frigates, with a mix of 3 designs containing DUC 2s, a Point Defence and a few Armour 1s. That early it game me quite a headache! They killed 3 fledgling colonies of mine as I pecked away at them with a handful of my defensive frigates. He also sent a couple of groups of 2 or 3 colony ships in while this was going on, and took a Rock planet close to my homeworld (I am Gas Giant).

I weathered the storm, and was able to repel this fleet and invade his outpost in my system with troops. All other races are fairly friendly to me, and I have treaties including a Mutual Defence Pact with 2 other races, who both refused to "Provide Military Assistance in Sector" when I asked... one because they'd suffered recent losses themselves, and the second race because they objected to me fighting with the Jraenar!

Things are looking a little better since then. My tech is improving, I gathered a main fleet of maybe 8 Shard Cannon Frigates, and a seperate task force of 5 frigates with dual Crystal Torpedos to hang back and fire at max range. This is working a treat! I pushed them back to their system and have seen what I imagine is their homeworld.

I see how they fielded an early fleet now! They've put the Construction Yard Component straight to use in four seperate Starbases around this planet. The planet was also defended by about 50 fighters and 10 or 12 frigates.

It's been great fun so far! My observations:

1) Seeing the Jraenar be aggressive, and gear up his planets for churning fleets out fast is pleasing AI to see. A lot of races are excessively friendly, but if someone does go to war they don't mess about!

2) He's definitely committing a good 90% of his attack ships into a single fleet. There has been the occasional lone frigate or two buzzing around my system in addition to the main fleet. This was problematic for me in the early game but I imagine the changes planned to have them maintain more than one fleet would be better suited as the game progresses.

3) I had some trouble with attacking the Jraenar homeworld. I played a little SE4, and this is my first proper session of SE5 so it could easily be my fault! My fleet had task forces of:

TF1 - ~10 Shard Cannon frigates on Close Weapons Range
TF2 - ~7 Crystalline Torpedo frigates on Maximum Weapon Range
TF3 - A transport loaded with troops, on Capture Planet strategy
TF4 - A recon ship and a Supply/Ordnance tanker (thank you Balance Mod!) on Don't Get Hurt.

I sent this at his planet with the 4 space yard bases / fighters / multi frigate defence. My offensive task forces retreated away from the planet, and the only ship that approached the planet was the Troop Carrier, which was promptly cut to shreds by the enemy fighters and frigates, then combat ended. What do I have set wrongly? The task force orders seem sensible enough but the results were a disaster! I'd appreciate some pointers on what fleet orders or controls will permit me a more credible attack!!!

4) I also saw that in some small battles with myself having a fleet with single task force of maybe 4 frigates, that during attacking my fleet would retreat when one member of the group started to be heavily damaged. All other members were functional, and everyone had supplies and ordnance. Attempting to hit controls to break formation or to attack the remaining enemies made no difference! I had to wait for combat to end, split the damaged craft away from the fleet, and then attack again to complete the job. What am I doing wrong here?

5) The only crash I had was while running a combat in Strategic mode - I set x8 speed, and I CTD'd when hitting Close once it was complete.

6) It's been a lot of fun! This changes made so far in Balance really go a long way. The ability to make Ordnance Storage and Supply Storage ships is essential, the fact that the AI can organise a reasonable attack has kept me on my toes, and I am loving the new SE5 Tactical Combat engine! I also prefer the approach to research in Balance, to help the AI avoiding retrofit madness, and also for my own purposes.

Please keep up the good work! I can't wait to get stuck back in to my game and take my revenge on the Jraenar with some shiny new crystal armoured destroyers!

P.S. I know that there's been some complaining about the original release of SE5 being a bit incomplete. Clearly things are already taking shape, the game is definitely playable to me now and I can see from the fix lists that things are going to continue to improve in the near future! I really think it's safe to relax since the remaining bugs and interface oddities will clearly get progressively squished, and the amazing potential of this game will come about!