Hi Don,
Welcome to the forums! Yes, the dyson gatlings can really be quite a challenge if they turn on you. That was a more recent change due to people never feeling particularly threatened by the dyson sphere in the past, they just complained it felt like a pure bonus instead. Well, now those dyson gatlings are something not to be trifled with for sure, heh. 
Glad to hear you're enjoying the game so well, and it sounds like you have a lot of good strategies going on there, even if the dyson golem did throw a monkey wrench into that!
Hi x4000,
yes this game is the most amazing game I ever played.
I bought it about 5 weeks ago and since that played it every day
beetween 5 and 16 hours.
At weekends more hours as on working days.
But everytime I say to me, only play 2 hours max, but
then I look at the clock and its past 00.30 am in the night.
First I played level 7 some times, but everytime I was killed by the AI
as taking a planet who send out so many troops, that I cant handle.
Then I played a 50 planet map with level 5 KIs and won the game, but it was a hard way.
The game I started yesterday with level 7 and 80 planets I will play very careful.
Every time before I played very quick take over 20 planets in one rush and cant crunsh the KI cause at one point
will be very angry and sends waves after waves. And build up the planets so
I get stucked.
Played now more than 15 hours and have only 7 systems with low defence (but not the home world)
cause the dyson sphere helps some systems.
The AI progress is still by 89. I reduced it by 200 cause killed the 4 co-prozessors and some data-centers.
The minig golem destroyed one KI-system, and so I have to live with that 20 points more.
I took a mark-IV-factory very early and so the whole map is explored my a mark-IV explorer.
So I finded out all the big stuff in the galaxy and the homeworlds, so its easier to plan
the strategies.
One time, an rebel-colony want my help, so I looked that this planet only is 4 hops away
from the KI-Home. It was a hard way to take this planet cause a planetary shield booster where there.
But I got it and now this will be my new operation base against the KI homeworld.
The other is 10 hops from another planet, but I think first kill the first.
Then I found a black widow golem.
I repaired it and he is now on the planet with the shield-booster.
He is now much harder to crunsh as before... :-)
But now about the game itself.
Bought 3 days ago the zenith expansion and its very very cool.
Pumping up the KI-command-centers, very good. The 99.999 health was to low.
The golems, wonderful.
The co-prozessors and the new stuff, I love it.
Every day one or more beta-updates. Thats awesome.
Thank you very much for this never boring game.
At last a questions:
When I use cleaning drones to cleanup a system from all the scrap, will I get some of the ressources?
I am not sure if it so.
cu,
Don Carsto..
