So I noticed that when I build a transport I do not get a warning about population or troops. In fact, you cannot tell if the transport has troops or not. What I am doing is building the transport, then putting it in orbit around the home planet (Population 27Billion) and then ejecting it next turn. I then get the troop slider and I move it over to max.

This seems to load up my transports. I have since 'depopulated' the Altarian homeworld from 27 billion souls down to 6! They were told to go and see new people and kill them!

Planetary invasion is still too easy. {Homeworlds} with a population of 10 billion or 27 billion (or whatever) should put up a better fight. At the very least it should take  3 or 4 or ,more  transports (in my opinion) to conquer the home planet of any civilization, even if they did not research any defense or soldiering techs.

Starports are too weak, my fleets or ships should be at the very least somewhat damaged by destroying one.

I have found that making habitable planets occasional or fewer on a large map gives all parties involved time to get core homeworlds up and running to be ready for midgame. Nice job here on those values.

More to come....