I noticed that my admirals gain barely any xp, neither after won space battles nor lost. I spent a long time with many battles, destroying all the crystalline entities, yet my admiral only had 30 experience points after the whole ordeal. This is almost nothing considering 200 xp is needed to level up to rank 2. I don't think this is intended. I have not tried if the same happens for generals, as ground combat rarely happens now in a game with the ai.
By the way, on a slightly related note. This is just my 2 cents, but I feel like the ranks should matter more, 3% more fire rate per level is ridiculously low. Feels like they had 10 ranks as reference point, but 5 ranks is the practical reality the vast majority of the time. Leaders usually don't even live long enough for the higher max levels to matter, if you have those, which is not the norm. I feel the same way about scientists which only get 2% more research speed per level. Good leaders should be way more powerful, I mean like at least twice what it is now.
By the way, on a slightly related note. This is just my 2 cents, but I feel like the ranks should matter more, 3% more fire rate per level is ridiculously low. Feels like they had 10 ranks as reference point, but 5 ranks is the practical reality the vast majority of the time. Leaders usually don't even live long enough for the higher max levels to matter, if you have those, which is not the norm. I feel the same way about scientists which only get 2% more research speed per level. Good leaders should be way more powerful, I mean like at least twice what it is now.