It's been a long time since i've been on these forums. At least a good six months or so... I played GalCiv 2 (pre-Dark Avatar) till I could handle myself in any non-cheating AI free for all. Anyway i was checking my email this morning (a tedious task usually with so much spam mail) and noticed that as a GC2 owner i have a coupon for 20% off Dark Avatar

This gave me a wild idea... I think i'll start playing GC2 again to get back into the swing of things...
Anyway, i was just wondering from a gamer's perspective, how different is Dark Avatar from the original? What are the main updates from the player's point of view?
I remember one thing that really p'ed me off back then was when friendly AIs going for influence victory built influence starbases in your home systems and there was no way to ask them to get rid of them short of buying them at extortionate rates or declaring war. Has this been changed?
I read a post about the Korath spore ships too... sounds very neat indeed.
Basically i'm just gauging whether i should buy this game off Stardock with the coupon today or wait till i could probably afford it and live the more 'sensible' (AKA boring) way.