We can have a rough idea about the strength of a player looking at his/her military points. I don't know thoroughly how it is formulated but I assume that those points also include utility ships, defense facilities, etc - i.e. it's the point you get through all military investments. So, you may technically have a top level military ranking without even having a fleet! I think it would be nice also to be able to see the offensive efficiency of a player in a different column (or as a separate item) under the military highscore. It can have a title such as "Offensive Efficiency," "Strike Power", "Attacking Strength," "Fleet Combat Strength" etc. It can be calculated only using LF, HF, Cr, Bs, Bc, Des. points- excluding defense facilities, cargo ships, recyclers, probes, colony ships, as well as Deathstars (which are too slow to represent a player's offensive efficiency) - and bombers (I'm not sure about them but I think they had better not to be counted as offensive power for fleet to fleet combats.). Also Weapon/Shielding/Armour techs can be added as coefficients...

Thank you for feedback, Warsaalk. Yeah, the number of ships is another thing that gives an idea; I have even found here a script that shows it as an additional column next to the military points. But it still doesn't give you the message. Before v4.0, military points were only based on the number of ships as you may well remember. LF was equal point as the RIP. Now we have military points which is a better representation of military force. In my old game, my fleet was ranking about 20s (in terms of ship count) when they introduced version 4.0. Then it turned out that I had the 2nd best fleet in the universe at the moment. I had a sudden boost of ego there!

Checking a single player is rather easier. You can simply probe and see one's fleet; but I think it would be nice to be able to see the military strength of all players at one glance and evaluate your own condition relative to them. So this piece of information may be useful for determining your fleet building policies... By the way, I think "Military Points Destroyed" gives a better idea than the ship count. But my suggestion is only a request for additional information. It is not something that will make any change in the game dynamics. So isn't it better than not?

Also, check this little example I've just composed:
Player A : 8900 pts (Ship count: 2010)
Player B : 8850 pts (Ship count: 2010)
Which of these two players should you rather avoid?


PS. While thinking on it, I have extended my idea: There may be two separate columns under the Military Efficiency item as "Offensive Strength," "Defensive Strength" that you can sort the list according to any column. It would be a good lead when planning what to build as a fleeter or as a miner...

I think my point is not clear; I am not talking about getting info on certain players; I suggest that we'd better be able to see our own military condition (in offensive/defensive terms) as compared to ALL others. It may be a vital information for planning to allocate your resources.