I never had any CTD's pre-patch anyway, so I can't say I agree with that. But also, it would be easy for someone to simply put the patch up for download on a pirate site as well, so it's actually less effective in purely preventative terms against piracy. But I think their openness and lack of evil-large-corporation CD-check schemes has cut down on people wanting to pirate the game.
I'd say it's partly because of the difficult level you're on. "Normal" still limits the AI economy and strategies, and definitely hurts militaristic races like the Drengin a lot more because, well, economy directly affects how many good ships you can get out there. Try playing with all AI opponents on Bright or Intelligent, you'll see the Drengin become quite powerful.
Two main problems, one with saved games and the other with ship design. -Loading a save game makes most "progress bars" (research, social and mil production, etc.) pause for one turn. As in, if it says 1 week left to produce something, that bar won't move when you end the turn and will actually take 2 weeks. If this affects the AI too then I don't care so much, but if it's penalizing the player it could be a real problem, especially for pe
