In my game a fanatic purifier neighbor of mine had an AI rebellion. The rebellion conquered some worlds but suddenly its fleet power tanked. I clnsoled over and looked at why and saw that they were running a massive deficit of enrgy and minerals due to not having enough pops to work their planets and having to pay all the maintenance.
The obvious solution to this is to add a big bonus to pop assembly speed with the rest of their bonuses.
The obvious solution to this is to add a big bonus to pop assembly speed with the rest of their bonuses.