Hi Ursom,
Thanks for your feedback on the roadmap. Let me answer.
The plan is to first improve the tactical part of the game, then the strategic part.
I am not making the game much more complicated than it already is - I am just making the strategy part better. The current strategy design is really only a stop gap. In fact, the new version will make it a lot more like Jagged Alliance. It certainly will not be like Galactic Civilisations. Now the non aggression agreement is necessary, because the player will be right next to a strong enemy that he has to eventually defeat. Without the agreement the enemy would just attack and wipe him out. He will not be able to do it until he gathers and equips a stronger squad. This gives the player motivation and makes the game more interesting. Also non-aggression agreements are not for free - you have to pay a hefty fee to maintain them.
About MMOs, believe it or not, not everybody likes them. Some people prefer playing offline against an AI.
There are some squad based games that have almost no strategy part (for instance Silent Storm) and the next battle is just chosen by selecting from a list. That makes the game very one-dimensional, in my opinion.
As, regards hiding in bushes, that seems like a good idea, I will consider it.
I didn't really understand the last part about the machine learning.