I'm fighting a swarm that I spawned in an allied NPR's system (because that npr had WAY too many ships and why not) but as it turns out, my burn ratio and engine% is significantly below the Star Swarm's defaults (Beam Core tech level). I DO have faster ships in production but they're going to take a while.

Is it possible to starve out star swarm when they refuse to engage your ships? I know one big source of their income is scrapping ships so I'm going around nuking whatever big and slow ships I see, but do they also have planetside sources, especially stealthy ones without EM/Thermal emissions? The NPR is slowly whittling away at the hive guards as well, and will eventually corral and whittle down the FAC balls... hopefully.

If it is, then I can wait for my faster ships to complete and then go over and blow up the FAC balls in one clean hit each, I just have to whack-a-mole the occasional salvage craft.

If it isn't, then I have to micro my old and very outdated missile ships (and like, 2 missile ships that can actually chase) to blow up the FAC balls instead, which will be... painful, to say the least.

Can XCM be scrapped? If so, how many materials could we get back at maximum?

Not sure how I feel about a new type of installation being added just to handle captured CMCs, but it sure beats having to pay enemy civilians after you conquer their stuff! I definitely agree with making them less efficient than automines though.

It also makes me wonder whether an "aggressive nationalization" type of play could be had now, allowing your civilians to breed CMCs on eligible but undesirable bodies (duranium-only planets, for example) before making them independent, conquering them and moving their installations elsewhere. This has the same energy as building force labor camps for your main race, not something I'd do but something that allows interesting roleplay possibilities.

Also, I can't thank you enough for the ECM changes and the spinal Particles, truly amazing stuff! Something I'd like to ask is whether Sensor Jammers' interaction with ECCM remains unchanged, and whether you've given any thought to the possibility of ECM having partial effects against superior ECCM and vice versa, as discussed here. I know it's not as straightforward as making the ECM penalty multiplicative, but it might be a great addition to the game if done right.

Why not just convert captured CMCs into automines?

A couple of reasons. If they were converted into automated mines, why don't civilians just use auto mines in the first place? Other civilian/commercial equipment tends to be larger and less efficient, so the same should apply to civilian mining colonies. Secondly, for game balance purposes, I didn't want to create an easy source of additional automated mines. The XMC can still be used in the same role, but is less efficient due to the transport requirements.

Yeah, but why not convert them into 10 automines instead of a new facility type? Does taking twice the cargo space really matter?

Ya i see your point you could carry 20 automines to an asteroid for double the production in the same time you bring one XCM. suppose i missed that point.
Still though it would be worth capturing them for the corrundum saving no. you would have to capture 10 automines for the same output. Cargo hauling is never a bottleneck for me in my games so moving it around isnt an issue for me. 

I wonder what problem or gameplay loop Steve was doing to see the need for XCMs