But shouldn't they have the option to either be incorporated in my fleet, join another civ, become pirates or rebels?

DA has this implemented.

Evil - All ships become pirates
Neutral - Half goto a civ Half become pirates
Good - All ships goto another civ

It depends on the losing civs alignment, not your own. An evil civ that gets wiped out is going to regenerate the pirate populations, a good civilisation that is crushed will send its friends some additional firepower.

However, when they're giving away ships to civs, they give them away only to civs they like.

Here’s a more accurate description from the Dev Journals.

+ When a civilization is killed, it will give its remaining military ships to either the pirates or another civ. Non-military ships are destroyed. + If the civ is good, it will first try to divvy out its remaining military ships to the civs with which it has warm or higher relations, if there are no warm or higher civs, it will give its ships to the pirates + If the civ is neutral, it will divvy half of its remaining military ships to civs with which it has warm or higher relations, and the other other half to the pirates. If no civs with warm or higher relations are found, all of the remaining military ships are given to the pirates + If the civ is evil, all of the remaining military ships will be given to the pirates + A message pops up that explains what happened and to whom the ships were given

I think the DA solution sounds good but the question of whether or not the defeated empires fleet joins up should probably have something to do with how the conquering empire's alignment matches up with the defeated empire. I could see evil forces joining up with an evil empire that defeated them and is therefore obviously more powerful.

Good Argument...

I think also that it shouldn't just depend on defeated civ's alignment and relations to other civs for its fleet to join the other civ or become pirates, but it should also depend on the influence factor of both the victor and defeated civ. As you mentioned a defeated evil civ joining their conqueror who is also evil, is very possible. But the ratio of joining the conqueror should be depended also with the influence ratio of victor vs the loser civ. For example. A high influence civ defeated a low influence civ, the defeated civ's fleet should more likely join the victor civ's fleet. The rest of those who are not joining the victor civ's fleet will either be joining another civ that was pretty close/friendly to it's civ, or and also at war with the victor civ, and other's not joining any civ, will become pirates, rebels, or just retire from their career (scraps their own ships and disappear). On the other hand if low influence victor civ defeated a high influence, very popular, likeable civ, than most of the defeated civ's fleet should not be joining the victor civ's fleet because they have a prouder tradition than that of the low influence victor civ. These defeated civ's fleets would rather join another civ they have good relations with or just become pirates.

I'm just suggesting that influence should also be considered in the decision making of these defeated civ's fleet, and the many options they have as whether to join the victor civ's fleet, other civs, become pirates, or sell their fleet to the highest bidder/black market and retire, to show that they also a 'mind 'of their own, as they really don't have any 'leader' now. What they decide is based on these decicision/formula of factoring in defeated civ's alignment, relations with other civs, influence matching of victor and loser civs.

IF the conquering force absorbs the defeated empire's fleet then this could result in a major wind fall of forces for the conquering empire. In the scenarios I an describing, I would go from being a empire with highly skilled ground forces and a small specialized fleet to having good gorund forces and an enormous fleet.

As for the fleet balance of acquiring the defeated civ's fleet. It's natural that the victor civ's prize is acquiring what it can salvage/inherit/own from the defeated civ's possessions/abilities, if it can manage to... so if balance is the issue, so be it, let the victor civ be more powerful if it can handle this 'power' Not all power is easily manageable. It comes with a price or responsibility...

First, the defeated civ's fleet (of those who are joining the victor civ's fleet) would take some time (n# of turns) to be incorporated into the victor civ's fleet. The n# of turns presents the time it takes for the victor civ's engineers/scientists/designers/linguists to translate/transform the alien labels and controls, alien technology and standards (size, shape, colour, weight, design of controls, washrooms, sleeping quarters, dining areas, etc of the defeated civ's ships into the victor civ's familiarity), the factor determining this n# of turn should include defeated civ's technology difference, traits/abilities difference, logistics difference compared to the victor civ's, and manufacturing capability of the victor civ.

Second, victor civ should still pay for retrofiting cost of the acquired fleet while the fleet is in the conversion process. Paying while not able to use it for n# of weeks.

Third, victor civ will pay the full cost of maintenance of these newly incorporated, fully operational fleet. Not all will be able to pay this much, unless the victor civ was already super duper rich.

Fourth, if victor civ can't afford the price tag of the 2nd hand fleet than it has no choice but to sell the fleet to the scrap yard at half price or lower, depending on it's economic ability which factor's in victor's economic score compared to other civs, and it's own, the highest price they can sell the scraps is half price.

I have noticed that at all levels the AI is absolutely dumb about guarding its planets. I can't count the number of times I've cooridnated invasions to dodged superior fleets to swoop in on worlds that are guarded by rag-tag fleets defending them and land sufficient forces to eliminate the empire.

On the current patch 1.3, the AI sent powerful fleets to destroy several of my precious starbases, but leaving its planets with inexperienced fleet allowed me to attack and invade its planets... in a way good for me, bad for AI. At least the AI has some sort of purpose, destroying my starbases, and succeeded at it, but may be AI should be tweaked to be more defensive.

I like Capidenn's ideas. I think a defeated civ should end up being assimilated into whoever beat them. I mean, when you beat a civ(or they just surrender) you get all their planets. I think you should get their ships and their starbases too.

I have yet to see anyone other than myself arm a transport. Although mine are very lightly armed and protected, they do get the chance to fight back.

I've also had a lot of enemies invade my planets. My last game, for example, had the Terrans and Alterians allied(without letting me know so that when I attacked the Terrans -with their whole 4 planets- I got attacked from all sides) and The Alterians had the stronger fleets. So the Alterians would widdle down my defenses while the Terrans sent in transports to attack my planets. Of course, once my "Lucky Ranger"s all got there the war abruptly ended(with the Terrans surrendering to their own ally!).

-Spencer

Well my transports aren't really armed for extensive combat. But I tend to have the problem of running into an escort ship or something along those lines and it's jsut easier to take them down with me. Stick on an extra troop module and a missle launcher and they tend to get the job done. Of course, doesn't always work that way.

-Spencer