TL:DR I want the human ships to level up a little bit like in Command and Conquer games, even the itty bitty fighter squads to the big capital ships, to make them feel more human.
The AI should probably get a different weird version of it, maybe based off of localised strategic, raidable infrastructure ("signal boosters/co-ordinators"), to make the AI seem less human and to give them an interesting different way to reinforce provinces.
Perhaps the AI's version can be based off of the AI building a series of structures that both require and serve as a direct link of these boosters in a path from its central core to that affected province, giving you a sense of the AI's reach and omnipresence. This might not cause AI progress, but the AI will automatically rebuild this infrastructure slowly in any province linked to another booster module that is linked to its core or directly to the core. Thus, you would be "cutting off" the AI's forces from its overmind to a limited exent of course. It also means that the more connected the AI is to its forces through this network (more booster chains/tiers leading into the system) the more effective the AI's troops become. At the start of a game the AI's control network will be a randomised but very limited network, but with branches that lead to the corners of the galaxy, allowing the AI to snake towards the player or other threats.
WARNING! WALL OF TEXT!
This is sort of a lore thing I admit, but it feeds into gameplay so here it is: in the AI war 2 lore, are the human ships manned by even a single pilot, or are they totally drone operated/automated?
The primary question that bounces off of this is: can ships and squads get XP and level up from getting kills? Like the command and conquer series or company of heroes for example. Next to the units Icon or health bar would be little chevrons if it had leveled up. In Command and Conquer Generals, for example, Ranked up units have marginal benefits, usually a +10% to health and damage or fire rate per rank earned (up to +30/+30), and the higher ranks (2 and 3) also gave the unit some very slow regeneration out of combat (1% per second, maybe slower not sure) to keep it alive. I think the way XP is calculated is some kind of combination of who gets the kill and also some of it is split among nearby friendly units (so the gravity well in AI war's case).
Company of heroes took this a step further in complexity, and made it so that the veterancy bonuses are different for each unit depending on that units specialization and role. For example, snipers (which double as stealthy scouts) generally gain more stealth, recon, and indirect survivability (such as regen, debuff resistance), but infantry usually gains more flat damage and defense boosts (specifically for the Rifleman squad, Accuracy and Dodge chance, but to simplify it for AI war balance it can just be damage reduction/health and damage dealt or fire rate.)
This also differs between the factions: American snipers generally get better at scouting, whereas German snipers get better at survivablilty (regen) for sustained use. Mind you, I think its better to have basic ships behave the same on each side in AI war (if its named the same it should behave the same on a basic level), but we could apply this veterancy difference to the strategic layer.
The human units might level up through fighting and staying alive. The AI on the other hand, might get better through strategic signal booster bases that the AI might build that only cover certain sectors in range (or the gravity well), that only give their units the bonus as long as they are in that covered system. In addition, the AI's veterancy bonuses for each unit might be different from the players to better suit the AI's playstyle and to differ it form the human factions. You might have several different types of AI booster as well, with different signal distance or signal power. For example, a security system or Gate System (leads to another portion of the galaxy) might be reinforced by 3 surrounding provinces having Tier 1 signal boosters, giving all AI ships in that central province level 3 veterancy (30% bonus stats). This means you might want to raid and destroy these installations while keeping the province intact not to piss off the AI. The AI's "vet" bonuses and the players should Cap out at 30%, to make this mechanic not too pervasive or insane on either factions side.
I think its cool because it means that fleets with lower attrition rates will end up slowly accruing veterancy, encouraging well planned strikes over swarm attacks. Your capital ships will also more consistently gain xp, making you get more attached to them as you can actually see their combat record and experience at a glance at their health bar. Largely speaking, the bonuses aren't enough to justify "survival" micro other than your capitals, who you won't be wanting to let die anyway by default.
I think this would be a cool little feature, especially if it helps "humanize" the human ships and make them more different from AI ships. Obviously its not worth it if it taxes performance or something, but I would figure I would throw the idea out there. Obviously the question will be "Does this create unsavory micro oriented gameplay". Other than wanting to preserve larger elite ships (which you should be doing anyway), I don't think this feature would compromise the "no/limited micro" rules of AI War. The bonuses are big enough to matter and be cool but not big enough to constantly micro retreat small units out of battle.
For alien races: The Spire with their super large ships might have to purchase veterancy for each individual ship as an upgrade costing minerals.
Another playable alien race might have to research veterancy for each individual ship class for each different vet rank to apply veterancy to all ships of that type permenantly (bombers, fighters, frigates, capitals, and Vet 1 ,2 , 3). This might even use a special or rare resource, meaning that the this potential bonus alien race has more potential to specialize than a typical human player faction.
