shpeka

I concur. If both the xenonaut and the alien are visible onscreen there is no need to move the screen.

Well, I tend to disagree with you on most points. 1. In MOO2 the technology advance is linear. Therefore you can choose your research pattern strategically. (Maybe you are thinking of MOO1. In that respect I believe MOO2 is better). 2. In the Civilization games you can also see the research tree. Frankly speaking the description of each technology is not that important to me. Either way I would check the internet in order to choose the optimal research path. Anyways - kudos for a well supported opinion.

There is one more elegant way of solving the problem: make hangar expensive/slow to build. As pointed by many so far - early craft should be easily replaceable (frame provided by the funding nations), while later craft are sturdier and easier to keep alive. This solution will make it hard to amass tons of cheap aircraft while at the same time will make the loss of a single craft less painful.

Actually this sounds quite reasonable to me. Why would anyone miss from one square away. A better solution would be a correction to the displayed accuracy/hit chance, depending on the distance to the target. This correction would take into account everything you have mentioned.

Hm, I have never thought that predictability would actually be seen as a flaw. I would definitely prefer aliens acting logically (i. e. predictably) as opposed to erratically (i.e. unpredictably). This is how you master a game - you learn the acting patterns of the NPCs.