I've played three short and one long game since upgrading to 1.3 and I don't agree with any point you've made, except maybe pirates. (It's unfortunate that you can't remove them 100%, if you want.)
EVERY game I've played at least one AI has surrendered. In my half-finished game, a FFA 6, TWO factions have surrendered, so far.
I have had to be the one to run from a fight, two or three times, and when I attack a high-value world, the enemy stays and fights if they have any chance in hell of doing anything other than being flaming sacrifices.
I also see nicely balanced fleets, now, instead of a horde of light frigates in one fleet and a horde of sieges in a second.
The AI seems to tech up to heavy cruisers a bit slow, but it's definitely a BIG improvement over 1.2.
I won't comment on the market, since I don't use it all that much and mostly play SP, but I'm liking the lower resources. I actually have to
think about what to do with my resources, now, instead of having all that I could ever need thirty minutes into a game.
I use Hysteria a LOT, and haven't noticed this. I just used Hysteria to destroy and recolonize two planets earlier today. I'll have to go back and look at them, but I hadn't noticed a problem.
Frigates not firing on enemies? Huh. Maybe it's mutiny.
