Congratulations! 
Beating 7.3/7.3 in less than 9 hours isn't bad at all 
Shredders + Spirecraft + Golems were a nasty combo there at the end.
Yes it was quite the combo to finish off on.
Well then, my thoughts having finished this game.
1: I think I need to move up in difficulty, time to try out a level 8 AI. The game was too easy overall. Waves, despite being uncontrollable, did not really threaten me after a point.
2. There was a theme to this game. A theme that quickly got swallowed up once the awesome firepower of the Botnet was unleashed upon the Galaxy. I found myself wondering what was the point of other reclamation ships once the omnipotent botnet was obtained. I can't sadly cannot offer any real statistics on what percentage of the damage output of mine was due to ships captured mid battle by my parasites; but suffice to say I stopped noticing ships reclaimed being of any importance after the early game.
The Botnet needs
some reason to be seen as an alternative with some actual real downsides. An uncontrolable force is only a detriment till critical mass is reached and you are free to move more (if not all) of your fleet into active battle roles. Perhaps reclaimed zombie ships should have a 50/50 chance of being turned loyal zombies or being bat shit insane kill everyone zombies, its an idea that would reduce the overall net gain of the botnet.
I understand the need to have zombies cost no energy. Such an unwieldy an explosive force could cripple your energy supplies with uncontrollable ships. Yet as things stand I still find the botnet too powerful as zombies can quickly become a defensive force that puts everything else to shame that is only limited by the power of your pc.
3. Shield bearers really do need a minimum field range. I agree with their clutch usage. That
one battle your really need to win. However after my first homeworld assualt I noted the great bulk of my SB's had survived albiet with less than 20% health. The result was units that no longer were of any use. Their shield coverage was non existent. A one use ship should be useful till the very end! Imagine the matyr losing tractor beams as it neared death, that would be terrible! Yet that is the exact kind of mass loss of purpose shield bearers suffer from atm.
4. Should MkI penatrators really be able One shot core posts?I've yet to play game where this is not my go to answer for Homeworld assualtts. It seems to easy to bring a pack of them with ya for the final assualt. They seriously reduce the threat of Core GP's by making them only require enough Penatrators be brought along. I don't know, they just seem too good at this. This feels particulary odd considering how my Art Golem was useless due to Artillery ammo immunities yet something so cheap in comparison was so good.
5.Crosshatch is a fun map type but I won't be rushing out to do it again.
6. Trader toys are so expensive. I managed to complete a Z power gen but everything else was left to gather dust. In a fallen spire game they are of great use but here in a normal game I just find they take cost too much to build to be of any practical benefit. They are meant to be mineral sinks but they often turn into time sinks as well. As they are they are just too removed from normal play to have any great impact. Of course they shouldn't be easy to obtain either but 100+ million for the High End Ion Cannon? Who is ever gonna get that type of time unless the game is going on 30-40+ hours?
Heck maybe change out the the high resource cost for Exo-galactic waves as you construct them (an ancillary cost should remain). Just like how the fallen spire thinking works, these trinkets are definitely as big a power boost as any spire destroyer or cruiser. Maybe have the waves scale with each one you build and the relevant power of the toy being built. It could be a real balancing act like the Super Terminal, get too greedy and you could throw away the whole game. Would require a change in pop cap though.
That's it atm. Anymore inspired though I have I'll post later but right now that is the main thoughts I have.
