Ok looks like its my bad, it conflicts with your Alien Armory mod it seems (only crashes when both are loaded). Its weird though, in the readme it states it can´t be used with the Alien Armory, but in the ruleset, it states the opposite (that you need Alien Armory). Which one is it then? Previous versions (without the Excavator) worked completely fine for me together.
OK, I forgot to remove these lines from the ruleset...
The readme says the truth though. Follow the glorious readme, not modder's treacherous side notes which he himself forgot about!
The fighter ship looks like a very good idea. A well-armed ship (better range than XCOM) with comparitively small crew, so you had better recognize their shape when you get a visual, and wait for them to land.
Thanks! That's how it should be.
If you or anyone else has more ideas, I'd be happy to see think about them.