New beta build! https://wiki.arcengames.com/index.php?title=AI_War_2:Multiplayer_Alpha_And_Beta#Beta_2.716_The_Great_Balance_Curve
You need to use the current_beta branch on Steam to play this one. This one has a TON of balance changes, mostly in the favor of players. Hopefully we have not made things too easy, but we can dial up enemies as-needed.
The overarching goal of this new balance is to make it so that most of your ships get stronger, faster, at lower mark levels, and then get diminishing returns at higher mark levels. Enemy ships largely still get stronger in a roughly linear fashion. This keeps the progressive linear challenge of enemies, while giving you the freedom to invest more widely in techs than you could before.
Frigates also got a number of really major buffs, and should be a lot more viable. Units like turrets, minefields, station-keepers, and other planetary defenses now start with much larger ship caps and then only grow in power -- not ship cap -- as they mark up. No more paucity of turret coverage in the early game, or touring back around your planets to place turrets every time you mark up.
There are a lot of quality of life improvements in general, mostly aimed at informing you better on tech upgrades, and also for purposes of making for a wider variety of playstyles. More balance tuning is expected soon (based on feedback, mainly), but we also have a number of other exciting QoL additions and game-flow improvements planned. This version already makes you a bit less at the mercy of the RNG at high levels of play, but we're going to be doing even more in that area very soon.