Newbye SEV General Questions

[Magister]

Hi guys, i'm a SEIV fan and i would like to have an insight review of the new chapter. In particular i would like to know:

Is SEV (as it is now) in your opinion better than SEIV?
Does it have any major bug which render it quite unplayable?
How is performing AI? Is it better, out of the box, than SEIV? And using player mod is AI competitive enough and enjoyable?

LAN Multiplayer is supported? Is it working better than SEIV LAN Multiplayer (which was giving us annnoying problem sometimes)? Is it enjoyable? Combat is player handled or automatically handled, or both, like in SEIV? Are threre major exploits that can be abused in multiplayer? Is the game balanced or it goes especially towards predetermined builds, race configuration and fixed weapons?

PBW Multiplayer is supported? Is it enjoyable? Does it have many players? Are there more player for SEV or SEIV?

Is User Interface good enough? We are not idiots (we liked SEIV, Civ series and such games) but we hate good games with poor interfaces because the game become very slow and tedious. Rules are well balaced and entertaining enough? Races are customizable like SEIV (maybe more)? Tech tree is big enough to entertain a long game (that we usually prefere)?

Any major guide out there to gather an inner understanding of the game, such as the notoriouus mega FAQ of SEIV? Any link is appreciated. Some suggestion to generally improve the game? We usually don't like using mods and we prefere playing patched out-of-the-box, but non total conversion mod may be welcome if it adjust big balance problems and render the game more entertaining without changing it too much.