I have increased the strength of Sci-Corps and Luddic Path fleets and I have given a pretty large buff to the Aurora to give in-combat Tri-Tachyon fleets a much needed boost. Tangent on balance:
Spoiler
There is currently this weird rock paper scissors mechanic between the three vanilla faction cruisers where Dominator > Eagle > Aurora > Dominator - when under 1v1 with AI. This generally even transcends loadouts which is weird interesting. Obviously loadouts that target smaller ships don't fair as well, I'm talking the primary strike/assault builds. Then to add even more nuance, once you make it a group fight rather than 1v1, that changes even more and the Aurora (post buff, mind you) generally comes out on top. The poor Eagle seems like it doesn't compete in that setting so again I'll keep an eye on it. There are lots of factors to consider - especially the strike craft the Eagle can bring in a supporting role compared to the other too so maybe the balance there is actually pretty good.
The campaign layer will require some more strongholds for Tri-Tachyon and a High Command somewhere so that is in the works too - alongside some planned defense stations orbiting the Askonia jump points for Nex - though none of this is implemented yet.
I've also taken the time to give some nerfs and buffs to reported outliers like the Apogee, Odyssey, Harbinger, Executor, Brilliant and Pillager. The Pillager should no longer use broadside AI and should perform better under AI control. I am also somewhat reversing the Archean Order vessel nerfs from a couple of updates ago. They are currently too flux inefficient to be much of a threat and making them harder to get is probably the better way to go as far as player power creep is concerned.
Weapon-wise, I have made the Sabot and the Thunderbolt closer in strength to each other and generally changed how anti-fighter missile weapons behave as a whole. They should no longer target ships in most situations and things like the Trapdoor and Proximity Mine will be used more liberally against both strike craft and missiles. The Proximity mine might actually be too good for its OP now so I'm watching that closely. The Ion Cannon line of weapons will no longer typically target strike craft, but the caveat is that now the AI uses them a lot less and rarely empties the full clip. It's a trade off I can't really get around since AI hints tend to do double things - which is honestly quite frustrating. Similarly, the AI is more conservative with anti-fighter missiles now that it won't target ships. It generally waits for a swarm, which could honestly be a good thing. Strike weapons are used against strike craft more often than I would like, but the alternative again prevents the AI from emptying the full missile clip unless the missile-equipped ship is heavily damaged. I'm leaving them as they are for now since, for instance, the Atropos is actually kind of useful against heavy gunships like the Goliath and Trident or similarly shielded strike craft and sometimes it's the only way the AI actually kills an attacking Dagger without its own interceptors or fighters.
Finally, I am looking at the Hivemind both in regards to reducing its inability to be mitigated to a large degree and it's reported tendency to cause friendly fire. I haven't looked too deeply yet there but plan on addressing it for this update.