One more question. Should we expect any more substantive changes to the civilizations (new techs/planetary improvements/ship modules/starship modules/attributes)? Or are the rest of the civ changes going to be AI and graphics?
Yes. In fact, I plan to do a long series of play-testing games (and blog about them) where planetary improvements are added, tweaked, changed, etc.
I'll also be reading the forums so that I can pre-bias myself to look at potential balance issues.
Plus, if I lose a game to the AI then I am a sore loser and will change the game accordingly. 