My thought was to mod the game to adjust trade to a level that would support a two ship fleet plus a little extra to compensate the player for the time dedicated to the building. You have approached it differently by giving the AI access to increased funds, rather than limiting player funds. The result looks to be the same, a more competitive game. I'm playing caravel mod now and enjoy it.

Talk to me a bit about the command line stuff. I don't know if I did it right. You add the -xxxx after the shortcut address in the shortcut properties? Do you put spaces? I couldn't find anything about it in the mod forum.