*Nomination: Harvesters, player side
I would prefer if those were removed from the game and all harvesters increased by 10 or something. They are WAY too excellent, they make a 15h game into a 10h game, but outside of making the game shorter (which can be simulated in solo games by pressing the + key or by not playing while resources pile up), they provide a grand total of 0 fun. I like fun. Let's have shorter games with 9000 more fun.
*Nomination: Shield bearers, Player-side
These are bar none the most effective bonus ship in the entire game, regardless of style of play, game settings, opponents, everything. I think they should actually become a base ship with slightly lower stats as they are really fun, but right now as they are they are one of the handful of things my gaming group bans if we are trying to have a balanced game as they are *so* good, we would need to play at difficulty 9+ to make up for them but thats no fun for quick games.
*Nomination: Core Raid Engine, AI side
Someone mentioned them earlier and i have to agree. Those are sometimes just right, but there are some cases where they are more or less a game ender. In some AI homeworld configurations it is almost impossible to reach them early, making taking down that homeworld a choice of adding 2-3h or just quitting the game to avoid the grind.