[Puke]

GT, you should try this mod if you have not already. there are many small changes, but to me the biggest one is this:

there are now several levels of 'city' type facilities. these take considerably longer to build than other facilities, and provide greater benefits to boot. a homeworld starts covered in cities, and is therefore very powerful. it makes colony development a longer and more involved process.

when i play it, i have the feeling that i am running a real colonial power with a central powerbase, rather than a vast distributed empire where every measly colony world is just as powerfull as my capitol.