Mid Game still too "Grindy" (RESOLVED, sort of)

[Zeyurn]

8 appears to be a lot tougher than it used to be since the introduction of guardians.  Specifically attacking a planet really has some bite behind it if you screw up.  A strategy I often use is to send in a few raid starships (even the mark 1s will work for this) and let them shoot up the tachyon guardian if possible or just get out of dodge if not.  Very often this will enrage the AI to the point of sending many of its guardians through the wormhole to my planet, where my turret defences plus full mobile fleet make short work of them.  At this point you should be able to counterattack with your own fleet and take out their guard posts ASAP.

This has worked for me in multiplayer by myself where my ship caps are pretty pitiful compared to the computer's, so I think it should be able to work for you if you are careful with the timing to not allow the wave to occur when the guardians are also hitting you.

[Sarnian]

I agree that transports are overly fragile at the moment and not just due to fortresses. I made the mistake of picking a Zenith Descendant AI to add variety, but the combination of beam frigates and bombards make the gave far too difficult, destroying both transports and mobile repair ships too fast for me to cope with (I'm not a fan of the 60 second delay before the latter become effective).

I think that transports need a bit of a boost overall.

[ShadowOTE]

Yeah, the MRS 60 second thing needs a bit of a balancing aspect - maybe make it so they gain extra health when "deployed" and the 60 second time is just getting everything set up? That way they're a bit more useful on offense. Alternatively, perhaps cut down the time to 30 seconds? They used to be mandatory for me, but now not so much - too fragile to leave alone, too slow to set up and help your fleet - unless you are just sitting somewhere, like a wormhole (in which case, just pop back into your system and handle it there. Sadly, they feel much more like a defensive support unlock now

[Zeyurn]

Is the MRS setup speed still 60s regardless of what game speed you set it as?  It seems like it might want to scale at least to 30s with normal and blitz.  I play on Epic where it's still a little obnoxious but stuff doesn't die that fast.