If ships could be given orders to retreat and/or scatter in some cases (outnumbered, outgunned, or heavily damaged), and not be stopped by the "tactical map edge"
, as was more or less possible in SE3
, it would help a lot.
I think some of the changes I made to ship components in Proportions mod also help this. I added cheap and strong "armored structure" components, which give a ship a lot more capacity to absorb damage, but still sustain damage.
In the standard game, I have seen some back-and-forth wars, particularly in the Universe Cup games, which are one-on-one duels. I think though that at the strategic level, there is a big problem with the runaway effects of empire size, due to the fast facility construction rates, low planetary capacities, and additive research facility points. That of course is the main thing I tried to fix in Proportions, so that the largest empire wouldn't quickly out-strip all others. I went farther than most players would like in the "slow development" direction, though.
PvK