Hi Kuma,

Thanks for having worked on this so continuously. This looks like a long and impressive list of changes. Maybe enough to get me into ES2. I contemplated it several times, but I held off so far due to the state of game and a few other things. I hope you wouldn't mind me asking a few questions to understand what the mod does and doesn't do:

1. I read some criticism that this game suffers from "build everything everywhere" syndrome. Is that still the case with the mod? The change list talks about rebalancing of FIDSI as well as changes to resources. Do the changes in aggregate lead to more decisions when or even whether to build certain improvements?

2. Another criticism was that the space battles cards were not well balanced (some dominant tactics) and the outcomes didn't seem to correspond well to what was selected. I saw more changes to modules, rather than tactics cards, so I suppose that's not something the mod touched upon.

3. Does the mod make any improvements to the AI? That's another frequent criticism. Else, I suppose other AI improvement mods should be broadly compatible, given that balance is fixed, rather than major new elements introduced.

4. I had a question on the minor factions: when you say "Everyone now gets access to development grants", do you mean all three types of minor factions (pacifists, pragmatists, military/warmongers)? Or do you mean multiple major factions with influence over that minor faction can access those actions?

5. It would be thematically nice to have minor factions around for longer. I suppose the mod only tweaks this a bit, by requiring the higher threshold for the assimilation cost and higher cost to buy out (? - the notes said tweak, not increase. how much difference was there?) It, in combination with development grants, would also give a nice continuing use for (some) luxury resources.

6. Lastly, I suppose that if another empire assimilates a minor faction in your sphere of influence, you will gain diplomatic pressure, right? That would be somewhat of a deterrent to assimilate willy nilly. In addition to it being of course a big military exposure.

Also, feel free to challenge my implicit assumptions around vanilla. I haven't played the game outside of endless days and so rely on others' opinions before committing. Happy to hear if some of those aren't problems after all or anymore.