Hey, I don't know if anyone else has been experiencing this. I've been trying to play at the "Impossible" difficulty level, I've played about four games now and each time the Craver AI has completely overrun the galaxy. They consitently seem to very quickly steam-roll over other factions, swallow them up, and then become an economic super power that either rushes the "Wonder" or "Economic" victory while throwing endless waves of disposable fleets at me. It happens so consitently now that I don't even consider other factions a threat, I'm only focused on Cravers.

Has anyone seen anything simillar? I know some people have complianed that playing as the Cravers can feel a little underpowered in this current build, but the AI seems to just use them as a millitary juggernaut at the higher levels. It's pretty frustrating to be honest,  every game becomes a race soley against the Cravers, and they don't even seem to be playing towards their particular narrative themes. Watching the enslaving single minded warrior Cravers win an economic victory time and time again doesn't seem lore-friendly.

They seem to always flounder in the games I play. Vodyani seem to me to be the ones always becoming a powerhouse. Although I really mostly play on normal. So maybe AI's have different strengths at different difficulties. Or maybe it's more determined by the AI getting a lucky start. I do definitely agree with you that it seems weird when Cravers win an economic victory.

In terms of AI, I noticed Cravers are hit or miss. They either flounder in irrelevance or dominate in terms of conquest/research. Next most annoying AI is usually the Vodyanni. They can be counted upon to usually be the first to have battleship/cruiser tech with timely CP upgrades, and moves around in a doomstack. They may not always be strong at bullying others but they're usually a pain to deal with. UE and Lumeris can be aggressive with lots of fodder ships, but they usually don't get CP techs on time to be a threat, and retreat-suicide too much because of it that it becomes fairly easy to handle.

Easiest way to play Endless difficulty seems to be playing as Cravers yourself though. Once you do the early quest for a free cruiser, you can go on a victory-tour around the galaxy eating every minor faction in your way, getting their populated and developed systems plus pushing you ahead of the AI in FIDS despite their difficulty bonuses. You can literally just arrive at a new system, declare war, land your ground forces, get a new system, and move on to the next all in 1 turn.

Then just go about eradicating the weakest AIs near you, and put a max CP doomstack on the captured faraway homeworlds and hold them until you have enough fleets to get a supremacy victory. The AI still doesn't get strategic weapon ships out in time on endless difficulty compared to a determined player (or maybe it just never gets enough for all those fodder fleets they make?), making conquest easy and straightforward. 

On the whole, I find myself more actively trying to murder major faction AIs on higher difficulties. It's just not prudent to let them get close to the peaceful victories given the bonuses they get.

Those are some really good points. I guess I just wish there was more of a "sweet spot" with the difficulty levels. I find that Serious is a little too easy, especially considering the AI's willingness to throw away ships in foolish suicidal attacks. The Impossible difficulty level is a little too hard for me to compete with though, especially against crusadin' Cravers.

I'm currently suit emergency access port deep into the Cravers on Endless Difficulty playing as the Voldyani. Sure it's a bit of a handicap for me as the player because Arks are going to seriously ruin anyone's day but they're rather managable when small. They had the misfortune of spawning next to me and proceding to conquer a minor faction with a nice deposit of Adamantium. Quick little border dispute turned into an all out war and it didn't end well for them. 

That said, I never really had problems with them in my game. Unless you're playing an extremely large galaxy and can't get to them, you should be able to diplomatically isolate them and bring them down. They tend to be very thinnly spread unless you're gunning for their Home World. 

Aea wrote:

I'm currently suit emergency access port deep into the Cravers on Endless Difficulty playing as the Voldyani. Sure it's a bit of a handicap for me as the player because Arks are going to seriously ruin anyone's day but they're rather managable when small. They had the misfortune of spawning next to me and proceding to conquer a minor faction with a nice deposit of Adamantium. Quick little border dispute turned into an all out war and it didn't end well for them. 

That said, I never really had problems with them in my game. Unless you're playing an extremely large galaxy and can't get to them, you should be able to diplomatically isolate them and bring them down. They tend to be very thinnly spread unless you're gunning for their Home World. 

I think you hit a point about the galaxy size. In my experience the size and the density of players matter a lot in the difficulty perceived.

What do you believe is a "competitive" map size for playing at higher AI difficulty levels then? I've been playing large galaxies with 8 factions and medium density. I like the room it gives for early expansion, but maybe thats allowing the hungry cravers too much freedom to grow.