[Raapys]

Armor and Weapons are not listed in the shared research pool - they are only called by the individual empire scripts.

In the 0.95 scripts there's definitely references to call 'Armor' in the Script_AI_GlobalResearch.txt file. There's also calls for the racial weapons, although no calls for any other weapons.

You're right, I can't find any references to Energy Pulse weapons in GlobalResearch or the Xichung main script, nor can I find the High-energy discharge weapons which he has also been researching. Perhaps the AI does random research if he runs out of 'calls' in an area before a new age is reached? I'm not entirely sure how the research system works yet though, so I could be way off.

More fleets would be a good move I think; the AI loose a bit by spreading the ships out, but they loose everything by not being there when their colonies are being destroyed.

Shields should probably become a bigger priority; they're just tonnage wasters the first few levels.

Not sure if you've already fixed this for 0.98/99, but in the 0.95 scripts available at your site, the GlobalResearch file is missing the 3. age indicator( 3: ). Instead it goes straight from 2 to 4. Unsure what the exact result of this is, if any.