Hi,
Although I like ship yard, I have found all I have to do is post a ship in a system and blow it up each time the planet rebuilds it. They cannot produce any ships! Game is over at that point. I just have to research invasion tech. There should be a way to still build ships without star bases???? Maybe only require it for capital ships? Have the ship yard also increase the speed of ships built if you have one??? Just some ideas.
It seems like the invasion tech is late in the game. It seemed that way in galciv 2 as well. I would love a way to start bombing planets before then with spaceships. Just seems to me like that if you had a space ship in a system, you could start bombing it, not needing the invasion tech. As a defense, have some ground based defenses against bombing, 
ion cannons?
I am not sure about the amount of tech. I usually play galciv 2 on smaller maps, not tiny, with fast tech research. Maybe since it is normal speed for tech research, it seems much slower. Having lots of tech options does mean you usually don't run out before the end of the game, but some techs take a long time to get to some techs. Example, it takes several techs to get to the first guns/beams/missiles or defenses.
I love the game. Thanks.