Ok, just did another round of balance testing of "my homeworld" vs the first attacker-hybrid assault (happens around 55 minutes into the game on my map), with a moderate amount of resources thrown at the defense:
(the rest of this post contains some degree of spoilers on how to handle hybrids, by the way)
- Full cap of MkI fighters, bombers, missile frigates, and bonus type (microfighters in my case, kind of mediocre for this use).
- Full cap of MkI MLRS Turrets and Basic Turrets.
- The starting units, notably the Mk I forcefield (without which there is no hope).
So I didn't spend any knowledge, nor use any tractor beams, or sniper turrets, etc. Also didn't lay any additional forcefields over the command station, doing that would have made things way easier. All the stuff I used consumed a MkI, II, and III energy reactor with some tens of thousands to spare.
Anyway, on the first test I got totally torn to bits in an embarrassingly small amount of time. I think I scared off 2 of the hybrids by bombing their forcefields to pieces, and then the rest finished bashing down my own ff and the command station went down in a hurry.
One thing I noticed is that while the Hybrid's 50 speed is very convenient for them actually getting around (remember, some of them are flying all the way from the AI homeworlds), it makes them a little unreasonably quick to catch with normal ships unless you have particular bonus types (the Neinzul Youngster types would do well, I figure). So I bumped that down to 30 so they'll still outrun most normal stuff but not pass them like paint on a fence. Also reduced their hull strength a bit (2 mil to 1.5mil) and the damage their weapons do against forcefields (the more siege oriented ones will get other modules that do better ff damage).
A couple more iterations like that and it was to the point where I could scare them all off and even destroy a few of them before they got away, though my ff was in the 40-50% range and I lost my space dock in the process.
Anyway, that seems like a better place for them to be balance-wise for the first attack, the really crushing ones should be later on after they've had a chance to increase in numbers and mature more (at which point you've had a chance to put together a respectable fighting force).
So their current balance is such that you can hold them off, just expect to have to layer forcefields, get MkII (or even III) bombers or other things that can scare them off fast, and generally be creative. In the next version you'll still have to be ready, but it shouldn't require knowledge expenditure just for the sake of scaring away the first attack.
