Well, what i would prefer when it comes to weapons and defenses is that the different weapons are there, but they ALL need to go through shields, the armour you have lowers the damage to the hp or something like that, i would honestly prefer that.
The Torians can research Colonizing Waterworlds ALOT faster, it costs them 200 research points to do, while the rest it takes 1000 research points. So, in the TA expansion, each race has their own techtree xml file, which you can either edit with notepad (if you know what you are doing) or use the game tech editor in the tools folder.
I tried editing the xml files, every races works fine with just beams and shields, but sadly, the Terrans for some unknown reason can't build the starting buildings. :/. I did the exact same thing for every single race, but only the terrans are affected by this issue. lol
I have tried to design my own ships, i might be just used to how Master of Orion 2 did it, but i find GalCiv2 ship designing....lacking, you need all 3 defenses to be protected? nah, i would prefer just armour and shields just like any sci-fi movie and show i have seen. If only i was a good modder, i would mod out the point defenses and make the shields and armour defend against all 3 types of weaponry.
I agree with Tzukasa7, the story campaign have certain limits on it that keep it within the story so it doesn't overwealm you. lol But the sandbox one can overwealm you if you do not work faster.
