You could also make each home world have no more than one "Really Bad(tm)" spawn. Like double Raid, AI Eye, or whatever. Of course 10 should be allowed two such spawns 
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I don't think I want to put a lot of constraints on what it does there; those are basically the only things keeping GUDare from walking all over 9+ 
But stacking an AI Eye on top of that big pile of pain so that you can't even bring in the fleet without an unending spawn of mkV ships...
Thanks for all the pats on the back folks, they feel nice, but I personally don't feel I'm up to level yet. The 9.0 game would have given me the same pain if the mapgen had spawned the same way, it really wasn't the level difference except in early game trying to argue with the Tech II, and one whipping boy malfunction on the cross to III. Admittedly as I crank up the level the results of the mapgen are worse, but it's the same net effect.
Keith, regarding the AI Eye. Most of my strategy involved getting underneath the raid engine. Since the Raid engine spawned locally as well it was a moot point. I just didn't put all the pieces together when I developed the strategy. It's frustrating to not be able to fully smash the system in one go though when you're fighting double raids, which is why I'd probably just bail if I faced it again. There's almost literally no way to handle Eye spawn + Raid spawn if it takes too long to get at them. It'll flush your game. Personally I'd merely like to see (generically) if Raid engine on planet no Eye. Ship mass is just too much. That it's a MK V Eye doesn't help any. Early game Eye II + Raid would be enough to shutdown a parsec or two.
For waiting on resources, I don't have a good answer. It's part of the process for the game I'm playing. I was over-extending constantly against foes with better marks and higher numbers. The fact that I was able to use a whittling technique at all was pretty powerful. I might beach-head Cyborg next game with those fortresses to abuse inbounds instead of trying to wait on Kerensky. Since they don't get the Mil III bonuses, there's no point being that contained with them. Admittedly they'll die a lot but oh well.
Any option that involves better resources for a higher permanent result (IE: AIP) is not something I'd ever use. You'll notice I don't ever pop Zenith ship storages, I almost never pop distribution nodes except in VERY early game to get things going. I usually, near midgame, have about 200+ of each converter somewhere in the back for when I end up in heavy rebuilds of certain items (Raid Starships comes to mind with their crystal costs). I wouldn't mind something that could reduce wall clock time but I also want to reduce game time. I rarely play at +10 time, because things get away from me too easily, and I tend to micromanage a bunch of things or use that time to clean up minor problems. Also, game time is an issue too.
It cost me an hour to have to go deal with the second Rebel Colony, the extra CPA was just icing on the cake. I could have spent resources on the metal/crystal boosters, but they're just sooooo overpriced on a non multi-homeworld game. I'd rather have more of just about anything else that will help keep me from having to spend the resources in the first place by being bigger and meaner. Of course cheapening them basically is a gimme for a multi-homeworld. Right now they're unfeasible though. 6500 K for what's usually a VERY small gain (what, MAYBE an Econ III's worth?) is not worth a MK III ship. Ever. I rarely take Fighters to II and I'd rather upgrade THEM to III on non-multi-homeworld.
For boosts of a non-permanently pain inducing nature, it'll be driven by the result. What's the point of rebuilding my fleet twice as quick if I have to nearly suicide them on CPAs twice as often? I know, everything needs a tradeoff, but that's not necessarily one I'd bother with.
Resources are a huge part of the game. I don't have anything I could recommend as a wise fix.
On a side note, one of the most frustrating things I ran into was the need for the baiting mechanic. Oh, I understand not sending 100 ships into a whipping boy to die. But it's just confusing. I had 2200 ships sitting on the other side of a wormhole playing poker, MK IV and V, and not entering. Their firepower was MASSIVE. They wouldn't budge. Yet later, with only 500 of those same ships sitting against the whipping boy, they flooded in with a tiny little 400 ship MK III wave. Against MUCH stronger firepower. I don't get it.
K-Raiding to insane volumes really allowed me to test a few different strategies, one of which was the Neinzul Factory ships. That was 18k (6 worlds) worth of knowledge for something that basically just 'came along for the ride' and didn't change the real game outcome, just sped it up a bit, and
required an investment to Engineer III to use well. They're only truly worth it to avoid MK IV factory captures, which you can't avoid with CSGs on anyway, and you're unlikely to HAVE MK IV ships if you spent that K on the builders.
It also let me put up weaker defenses at different points which still were utterly consumed by minor components of the CPAs, to the point where I'm not sure if it was worth it to spend K on that. I'm still refining my strategy, to be sure, but there were aspects of this game that were significant wastes of resources.
For the Dyson... once you know where it is, just don't keep a scout on it if you're not ready to use it. It's quieted down and will just happily sit there, as far as I know.
