New beta build! https://wiki.arcengames.com/index.php?title=AI_War_2:Multiplayer_Alpha_And_Beta#Beta_2.741_Refining_The_Big_One
You need to use the current_beta branch on Steam or GOG to play this one. If you have trouble with it, there is a most_recent_stable_beta, now, too.
This is a refinement of yesterday's big new build, as you might imagine. One of the things that is unusual about this beta release is that we're breaking savegames from the prior build. They were just THAT unbalanced (in your favor), and we want to make sure that any further feedback on this beta branch is not some funky hybrid. Sorry about that; normally maintaining savegame compatibility is at the top of our list.
This new build fixes a number of bugs and tweaks a lot of things, but mostly it's just refining the same ideas into a more-balanced form, minus a few of the bugs that were also in the way. Players were having just absolute HEAPS of turrets in the prior version, and hacking points were still too abundant. So that is probably the most notable shift in balance here.
But at the same time, we're also trying to give minefields and watch standers their day in the sun, so there's a new and cheaper to hack structure that grants those. The Warbird balance changes that were supposedly in the prior version also didn't get applied, so that was still OP as heck. Now it's tuned properly.
On the other end of things, hacking ARSes and TSSes/ODSSes (the new split DSSes) no longer cause the AI response to ramp up. That was something that was too imbalanced against you.
Another interesting change is that now Relentless AI Wave units that find themselves on a planet of themselves or allies will fight there if there is at least 3 enemy strength there (aka you-strength, typically). This way, when you're hacking in enemy territory or enduring a counterstrike, the enemies don't run off for your worlds but instead fight you in place.
Hopefully this is a lot closer to the balance mark!