The Machine Army should change from Consumer Upkeep to Energy Credit Upkeep in the polices.

Hi absolutely loving the detail and thought put into this mod. Got some ideas:
1) I know some folks have mentioned the NSC2 drop pod. Obviously they work together but it would be cool to have that technology and your work blend. Perhaps in such a way that your mod treats the drop pod like Marine Expeditionary Units. Adding some flavors to how those armies work and improving their doctrines would go a long way. Maybe some collab with the folks with NSC2?
2) Another idea would be to provide environmental bonuses/training/specialization to units. For example, You can land an assault army on a frozen planet and they suffer a BAD penalty for being a species that thrives on a desert planet. With research or an event, you develop a tech that allows you to build armies that are specialized for different planetary environments. In modern comparison, take italian army units, they have regular army but they also have their alpine troops, who specialize in warfare in the italian alps and cold weather conditions.
3) My last idea is kinda wild so laugh if you must. In base game you typically take a star system by landing armies on planets and blowing up the defending empire's outpost. What if, instead of destroying the outpost, you assault it with an army? This only works if there is no defending fleet or it's otherwise engaged, but in the same way you attack a planet, you can also attack an outpost. And maybe bigger outposts require more armies. Or a "special forces" army that specializes in taking outposts.

Don't know if any of this is possible but your mod does wonders at getting me thinking. Keep up the beautiful work!

First of all, the concept of this mod is brilliant and I really like the new "storyline" of an empire gradually adapting to changing realities of galactic conflict. Unfortunately, from what I've experienced with it in conjunction with other mods, is that it throws a lot of things out of balance.

Ascension Perk armies like Psionic Troops and Gene Warriors, both of which I love for roleplaying reasons, are now completely useless. Gene Warriors cost more than the Planetary Shock armies, which you get early on in this mod unless rushing gene-modding, but do 30% less damage. Now, this wouldn't really be an issue, but this mod also buffs the hell out of Defense Armies with the Adapted Soldier Kits tech to +1000%. I played against a devouring swarm and saw they had so many defense armies, it would be suicide on a scale of Klendathu to invade them.

This unfortunately leaves players in a position to spend several minutes having their fleets endlessly bombard fortified planets and rely solely on the NEW armies provided by the mod to invade because of their superior power. Assault and clone armies are now nothing more than cannon fodder, and Gene Warrior and Psionic armies are overpriced and useless in comparison.

I would hazard to say these balancing issues could be corrected by either removing the last digit, or cutting the bonus in half entirely. Ideally, Gene Warrior and Psionic armies should be below the Sustained Army and Battle Mech armies, so they're not useless and the decision comes down to collateral damage vs. outright destruction, especially for players like myself who do whatever necessary to capture Fallen Empire buildings intact.

Last of all, half the mod buildings are so powerful, my AI is using them instead of vanilla and other mods. The Army Hospital, off the bat, is already as good as the Tier 2 Gene/Cyto-Revitalization Center and most of the worlds I've conquered have it instead of the Gene Clinic. The Unity output is also the same, despite being a military complex. In this case, I think it should provide 3 Unity for Militarists, and 1 or 0 for any other Ethos.

The R&R District is WAAY overpowered, being outright better than the Tier 3 Holo-Theatre and providing a bonus to Pop Growth AND Trade value, which again, you can also get before mid-game. And again, the AI prefers to spam these buildings on larger worlds instead of vanilla stuff. Unity output is also superior.

To make matters worse, balance-wise, none of these buildings consume special resources, rendering their vanilla counterparts unnecessary instead of being complementary. I was surprised to see the Arms and Mech buildings produce a decent amount of alloys, comparable to T1 and T2 Alloy plants. I run Gigastructural Engineering and AVB, so by the time I was able to research and upgrade them, T3 and T4 Alloy Plants were far superior. I feel that if these buildings are gonna produce that much, in addition to enabling advanced army production, then these armies should cost a third of their minerals in Alloys.

I think that's everything, and I honestly applaud you for your work and creativity. I hope this comment helps in any way to better balance future releases, and I thank you for taking the time to read this. May the Force be with you, always.