I was playing a 2v2 against the computer, each faction had its own star system to build up their forces, and it was going pretty well, all the planets (with the exception of the flood/pirate base) were under my control, and had a fleet in the stars gravity well intercepting anything else. Suddenly, FLOOD - EVERYWHERE. They ransacked a few planets of mind which I re-conquered, as well as built up decent defenses around, yet still they appeared in numerous planets at once, not to mention this is in my own little isolated solar system which isn't linked to any enemy player planets where broadcasts should be able to reach. (Can't remember if rebels showed up to every enemy planet in the original game regardless of planet links though)
Now, I know that's the point of 'Infection', and its original predecessor, but the amount of flood in these raids AND the frequency was just too overwheming, even with maxed out tac slots with mac guns and hangers, plus a few ships, leading me to loose one planet after the other. Which made it even worse was I couldn't rebuild everything right away because I had lost some research stations and couldn't use previously accessed buildings and what not. For a good while it felt like I was battling a whole other faction of flood, that's how bad it was.
So, my suggestion is to cut the size of flood raids in half at least, and reduce the frequency by...well, a lot. Or, if that's unlikely, at least make 'infection' only able to affect planets that enemy broadcasts can reach. Flood pirates are bad enough, but having decent sized fleets just 'jumping' to every planet where ever, when ever they want takes the fun out of the game in my opinion. I tried combatting them, but in the end both me AND my robo counterpart lost by the scourge of the flood...come to think of it, I rarely recall seeing more than a few enemy faction ships...but yea, flood infection needs to be toned waayyyyy way down. I can't imagine how the Covenant factions could deal with it, the UNSC at least have nukes!
