In my last campaign, AIs with less than ten planets (usually about 8 or 9) had built over 250 ships; almost all with tiny or small hulls (I play with the "very slow" tech option enabled). The game ended fairly early (I won a research/tech victory), so eventually they would have built far more ships.

250+ ships is too many for my personal taste. It reduces the importance of each ship when you (or the AI) has that many (just like having too many planets does, IMHO).

Why question is: is there a modding solution to having so many ships that doesn't unbalance or break the game? I could reduce all civs military production in the RaceConfig file; but what else would I have to reduce to keep the game somewhat balance (like growth rates, social production, money)? Is there a way to reduce military production by a percentage, not just a flat value?

An alternative to this would be to increase all ship production cost. but what is the easiest way to do this? Would I have to mod all ship components? That could take a while! and other issues would come up, such as: do I also make constructor ships cost more production as well?    

also: to avoid the small ship spam which seems to come with playing on "very slow" tech, I'm thinking of giving all the civs the tech that comes just before medium buildings (I'm not sure that what it's called); in the hope that medium ships would make their appearance sooner. Another issue with playing with "very slow" tech enabled is that the AIs don't research "planetary invasion" for a long while. I might either reduce it's costs, or better still: give all the civs the prerequisite tech. Overall, I really like the effects of playing with "very slow" research (especially with tech trading disabled).

Can you please offer some modding suggestions for reducing the number of ships in game? And any other thoughts you might have on this topic? Thanks in advance

Edit: By the way, I'm using the APT 1.3 mod.