I guess the best way to eliminate such huge forces is to kill them while they move. A dirty trick, but it might work.

When I'm close to victory, the AI spawns a lot of super seedlings.

I mean, there are too many of them,after 5 minutes or so they add up to almost 1500 seedlings, HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO WIN???They are invincible!!!!

Nice ideas, BFG. I could imagine something like … as soon as the first own [system] has been gardened, there could be an evolutionary leap so as to have one’s own different agents categories to cooperate better with each other … finally learnt each other’s languages or something.

Quick question for anyone in the know (sillytuna .

The largest tree I've ever seen had 32 "nodes" - i.e. 32 branches from which new Seedlings could develop.
Is that correct?  If so, does that mean that it develops seedlings 16x faster than a brand new tree (with only 2 nodes)?  Or is it a different relationship?

Pilchard - You might as well move it; all the suggestions really ought to be in the same place   Thanks.

Stuff

Hmm, good points!  A few more responses:
2) True, but there are a number of levels already where flowers are the deciding factor (at least for the less skilled players among us!)  Particularly if the AI does not have access to terraforming trees, this could potentially ease the difficulty a bit for players.  Though to be fair, it could make the game more difficult if players always prioritize pollinated terraforming trees above pollinated Dyson/defense trees.
3) I could certainly see an argument for leaving this out of the main campaign.  But I think it would be a GREAT addition for Dark Matter Mode.
4) That makes sense.  Even the strongest hardware could not have an unlimited number of seedlings.  However, stronger hardware could support more seedlings simultaneously (say, 5000/2500 for example) than weaker hardware (2000/1000).
6) Perhaps rather than using color, a different attribute of the asteroid could be used.  For example, perhaps Strength could cause a "rocky" texture to be displayed rather than a smooth gradient, while Energy could cause the "shinyness" of the asteroid to increase, and Speed could introduce some sort of small atmospheric/wind phenomenon.  Just an idea to liven up the graphics a bit, and allow people to eyeball the asteroid's strengths without actually toggling it.

And, finally,
9) Grafted trees.  Trees that are half Dyson, half Defensive.  To maintain balance I'd suggest 15 or 20 seedlings are needed to start one, not 10.  (This wouldn't confer much benefit until it is pollinated...)
10) Flower capture.  Enemy flowers (and mines?) can be captured rather than destroyed, when the asteroid is taken over - much like the trees themselves.  This makes asteroids with flowers higher value targets.