Hrmm. Beat a Station Assault. Even with the stations in, it's still too easy.
I think the big issue there is what happens when you get rolling, capture-wise. Was slamming through with a couple of Conquerors with shield-busters and Neutrons, with enough carrier backup to keep 3 Wings of Boarding Shuttles and a smattering of other little stuff going. No light support, just mega-heavies and fast movers.
About 10 minutes in, I have a smallish army (like, -130+ DPs) of captures working for me. Granted, this was largely due to some other changes I made, which I think people will like; I finally figured out a good way to make "scenery objects" and "wrecks"... but my code scattered a bunch of Tritach ships all over the battlefield, so I had some free Odysseys, amongst other things.
And of course, this was a fight against the Indies, who still aren't terribly scary.
But I think the issue here is straightforward; the Transporter Ray needs to be a working thing and Boarding Shuttles need a significant nerf. Having free in-battle captures that don't ever require Marines just won't cut it; I think it's imperative that players have to do that. Even having Boarding Shuttles run out (eventually) isn't doing it.
So what I think I'll do is this; ships captured by Boarding Shuttles will get crippled, CR-wise, and be put on Retreat. That will greatly nerf their effect on the battlefield.
The other issue that's apparent is money. Got a high-end fleet? It doesn't feel like you ever pay for it. There's a tipping point where if you capture enough capital ships, you're looking at a cool million for a battle and with enough super-heavies, you can do it without losses. Supplies are irrelevant; even with thousands of crew, you're looking at a drain of "only" 20-30 day, which just doesn't matter at all. So I think I need to put crew pay back in, like the Exerelin builds where paying for a planet-crushing fleet was a large part of the game. I could do it via Supply drains, but I just don't like that very much; too much potential for fun-wreaking situations.
Lastly, I think that I need something boss-fight for people to do. Station assaults will be quite a bit harder if Boarding Shuttles can't just give you an army, but I think that even more challenge is required. We'll see if I still feel that way after taking on Tritach / Hegemony / Pirates, but I suspect it's all the same; when players reach levels where they've maxed out Tech, most of Combat, and have Making Do... it's all downhill and I want people to have to try a lot harder.