Here try
The Avatar Emporium by our local graphics guru David E. Gervais. You can see more of his work by playing SE5 too. The thread for the Emporium is located
here if you want to make a request. You can also find the rank if you want to get spiffy and add some.
I didn’t care for GalCiv either, maybe because I was already very spoiled to the SE series. Modding does take a lot of time, but if you learn it in chunks starting with the Components.txt file you will be able to fix and tweak some things that irritate you now. Some not all! Boarding isn’t really my thing, there’s just not enough room in space for other ships. I prefer to stand in orbit and carry out a demonstrative strike then demand surrender. If that doesn’t work I can always order in new shipments of ammo; if you catch my meaning.
As for the Strategic problem there is nothing I can say to help you with there. What you are reporting is what I have heard since the game was released. I would strongly advise that you send your bug reports and your save game to support_at_malfador_dot_com. Aaron is the greatest about taking the time to reply. In fact after I post this message I am going off to answer a question he sent me regarding a recent email. He really cares about how we feel about the game and I have never heard anyone say he hasn’t gotten back to them when needed.