This is exciting and interesting stuff, the kind of things I wouldn't even dare to predict how much change they imply.  It will take me a lot of gameplay to absorb.  I am psyched.

I really liked the visual of the initial minimum influence ring.  It did indeed make a good narrative point.

I agree wholeheartedly with the pet peeve.  Anything I change anywhere should be immediately reflected everywhere.  I consider it a simple principle, but implementing that smoothly might be a bit more work than that.  So, I appreciate the effort.

And geeky thanx for detailed updates.

Can you take a look on early build orders?

There are two major issues:

1) Shipyards. A freshly founded colony doesn't need a shipyard if has very little manufacturing. Besides, building shipyards via constructors is cheaper.

2) Upgrades. You just don't need a xeno factory if you can do the earliest added tile + solar power plant instead. And yet the AI commits to these horrible inefficiencies, where it upgardes all it's buildings before doing something reasonable.

Apart from this:

ceterum censeo

Thank you Brad for the balance update on the cultural and diplomatic mechanics.

Look forward to the admin resources. 

Administration!!

Finally.

Woah! The radical changes keep coming! This is shaping up to be an exciting beta.

These changes are now available on the optin.

Hoah, Frogboy! Keep 'em coming!

You rock, man

1. You know I just realized it feels a bit strange being able to access the bazaar before researching Universal Translator.

2. Even if all manufacturing is set to social a shipyard will still receive 1 manufacturing point if the sponsor planet has distance decay.

Thanks Draginol, pshaw, and other devs! Looking forward to testing out the changes!

Your updates are amazing! 

Thank you! I am 280 turn into 1.9 but I did notice the diplomacy thing. I was going to go to war with Drengin but Ill restart a new game. 

Engine is much faster. 

Turn times are easily 50% faster if not more so.

Ai is colonizing very well. It is going after high quality planets first THEN lower ones. At turn 200 on an insane map We were still in colony rush.

Tech>>>> Research is somewhat broken. I am teching FAR too fast. As I told Horemvore, there is never any need to get the last tier research building in Age of Exploration. It is the building that comes with your tech capital. Once I get this I will NEVER go along that tree again and instead just make research focused planets. 

We need a reason to go down this line to get the best techs. Also we need Age of Ascension techs to be 10x more costly then they are now ..AFTER you enter that age though.  I was mentioning that you needed the late game research buildings in GCII but its not the case here. All techs are linear in cost and it seems that it should be different 

What he said!

I like all the changes that are being made to the game. I really want to play but have not been able to bring myself to really play in a year. Main reason are Starbases or mainly upgrading them. Please all I want is a toggle button of the starbase screen for auto update. I just cannot bring myself click through all those starbases after I research an upgrade. On the maps I play it takes 5-10 minutes every time I get an upgrade. Any chance we can get this? I have tons of free time right now and would love to play.

P.S. I agree with you Brad I just cannot play Civ6 either turn times are a few minutes.

Tech progression is still too fast. 

There's just so much that needs to be done still. 

RE Civ VI, my turn times are not too bad. 

Yes Tech progression is too fast. Can we change so that each progressive tech (half-way) in the age of war is 'exponential' in cost including specializations? 

Why half way in Age of War? Mainly as this is around the sweet spot for war to break out. Most of us will all be about equal in tech, Harpoons, Disrupters or Pulse cannons or a combination of two of each. 

While waging wars, the majority of your fleets will be these techs. Going thru the effort to get Plasma or Phasors should be a satisfying reward and will likely be a stalemate breaker in wars. Parity would be broken and of course if you are at the receiving end of such you will be more engaged to catch up, or change tactics to win. 

Also, can we get a longer gap between Phasors and Doom Rays (actually all the last two end game weapons need more of a space between them.)

Thanks again Frogboy!

Is the admin system in the current opt-in? I'd like to try the game again when that feature is ready.