I like the idea to make an academy a new hostile faction against all of us but the new diplomacy implementation is not required, the spear can be use too soon in the game and this fleet is too strong, it seems like a Tsunami  and the rest of the diplomacy is not usefull, and the Nakalim, faction is too much weak. I bought this dlc but I finally dismiss for playing without to have a great bufffff at each time. It's shame, I hoop so you will fix this. .I stay a fan of this game of course but de stability become pointless.

(heart ombral is week too) but de hack is useful and a good adding.

I dunno, UC basically wins close to every game by conquest alone, since it just nonstop grows.

Nakalim seem pretty strong, especially combined with the fact they should be the prime contender for Spear of Isyander.
But I agree that the early game superfleet can be quite influential and it gets stronger with slower speeds.

Speaking personally for a moment, I want to see all of these problems fixed as much as our community. But as you say yourself, some of them are beyond my scope of comprehension, and others are simply beyond my scope of time, and in the end my job is managing the community rather than fixing issues, so I do what I can to offer the known workarounds.

The-Cat-o-Nine-Tales wrote:

However, as far as I recall the resoure Isyander asks for is not picked randomly, but rather the resource with the highest production across the galaxy (with Dust and Influence having a lower weight than strategics,) It has been a while since I looked specifically into that, though.

So you are saying that if I temple couple planets I basically guarantee that it's going to be influential contest + I autowin it? wohoho! nakalim +1
I would though include a reminder that strat resource production across the galaxy is random. And you can easily end up doing hyperium race while you are without it.

Issue could be with the starting power, as it can be attained as early as turn 11, but more likely turn 20. I can't see many player producing adequate forces to counter it in that time.

In my last multiplayer session I won the fleet on the first bidding. The fleet has 20k+ attack power, 16 movement speed, and you get it for 20 turns on normal speed. It comes at a time when everyone is on small hulls.

I had scouted my 2 human opponents. In 4 turns of movement I was at his capital with the fleet, invaded and raised it on the same turn.

I then started to move on the other players capital, at which point everyone said that they don't want to play anymore.

It needs to be toned down by scaling the attack power of the fleet throughout the game. The first round the fleet should be relatively weak. It should be strong for that stage in the game, but not game ending like it is now. Was this tested in multiplayer before release? If so, what is the counter-play?

You are supposed to hack any academy node to immobilize the academy fleet. (In cases the academy node is 10 - 40 nodes away, well, good luck?)
Also setup up roadblocks along the way. Single scout ship will set the fleet speed to 0, unless UCs get it, then it just materialized on your capital, wopsie!
You can also draft 4ever as the invading fleet, while having manpower capacity, is not an autowin button when it comes to invasions and you can hold out, some players and factions are experts at holding out indefinitely unless faced with heavy deployment increase modules.
So all in all do not fight the fleet as it is, fight the invasion, all you basically need is to survive the first wave, end turn supply drop X mp to your home (you create or fly in a fleet with MP with end turn forced movement, so it can no longer be engaged a "pro gamer move" people hate but do), keep fighting for 20 turns while that fleet is rendered "toothless" against anything that is not in orbit as all it's MP is commited to the invasion unless players actually are aware of the retreat button, in that case, wopsie again.

tl:dr give up on space superiority for 20 turns, counter with ground superiority.

You can also just agree not to use the fleet, prioretize other options such as "all the laws you do not have slots or influence for", "space trivia" or "give money to your enemy" or just turn the DLC off.
Certain parts of balancing are simply a mess, so it is always a gentlemans agreement to not make the entire experience worthless because you can just use hissho mining probes to practically reproduce the academy scenario without the academy. Turn 7 craver T2 hull rush anyone?

At which point everyone is just best off playing custom factions.
splicers + cravers + sowers + mining probes for everyone!

disclaimer: 1 ai of every faction except the faction I chose. Endless difficulty everything, Huge galaxy
EDIT: I do not play multiplayer :(

I have never thought of the spear fleet as overly powerful.

In fact, I'm with the guy that said it should have scaling.

Because it becomes ireelevant later on against behemoths and dedicated combat fleets.
Admittedly, I make a conscious choice to try to get military fleets early.

I find early aggressive pirates to be much more dangerous than the spear fleet early on.

I would like to see the academy diplomacy balanced across various factions, but it would likely require buffs elsewhere.
For example, why can the cravers, only war, no diplomacy faction, routinely and easily secure the academy's fleets.
They should not even have the option of donating to the academy, or they should receive alternative rewards.

Because even Isyander wouldn't be dumb enough to hand them the keys.

I think the spear fleet does arrive at an awkward time. The Destroy a lot of CP with the spear fleet is one of the last 4 achievements I don't have yet.
Because its first arrival comes when fleets are too small.
And by its later arrivals it is too weak.

Hi guys and women, we have a new mod build by tygart Academy Nerf: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2047050083