Lebeman

I think the step between crippling and masochist is to big. A difficulty between those 2 levels would suit me just fine.

You can select to be in the same team as the computer players. But how do you set up a game so that all the ai players are in the same team against me. One reason that the game is somewhat easy is that the ai players always fight each other and adjust their weapons against the other ai players instead of me. I want them all to come after me, making ships design to kill me. Perhaps then you can play on lower difficult levels.

When you colonize a planet you can sometimes get a starship bonus. What is it good for?