Or do they just get bonuses? I've been playing on normal and the AI send their fleets little by little to a system they are fixated on, instead of grouping up and doing a massive attack. The little fleets get destroyed over and over and over and over again, until I destroy the AI's empire. I noticed also that they don't seem to use up all their mods or utilize new weapons tech, so I just snowball the AI in normal difficulty.

Unfortunatly, no. They just get bonuses. they don't get better at playing the game. It sucks. Love the game but the AI is so weak. Just like Civ6.

I have heard from the devs that they do get more aggressive when the difficulty level goes up but I don't know.

Slashman wrote:

I have heard from the devs that they do get more aggressive when the difficulty level goes up but I don't know.

This is because the AI gets more aggressive when it thinks it's are ahead. And that happens often in the higher difficulties, especially in the early game.

The AI is VERY weak.

I admit I have a lot of experience with this kind of games, but just the fact that I just won easily my first game on Endless difficulty disapointed me a lot.

This was the same with Endless Legends.

Absolutely love the game, the design, the mechanics.  But god that AI....

Groo wrote:

Raise the number of AI players and decide to change map settings (no twin-galaxy, i.e., play spirals). What are your tested settings? Edit: What about pirates? You did choose them activated and on endless?

Do you find pirates to make the game harder or easier ? I feel they make your early game harder, but after you've caught up endless pirates are manageable.

On the other hand the AI seems to struggle to handle them, especially endless pirates vs endless AI. I think what happens is (if you have vaulter DLC) the AI just sends them so much dust (because endless AI bonuses) and doesn't clear their bases well so the AI is kind of shooting itself in the foot.. Did you have a similar impression ?

ColonelPlastic wrote:

Groo wrote:

Raise the number of AI players and decide to change map settings (no twin-galaxy, i.e., play spirals). What are your tested settings? Edit: What about pirates? You did choose them activated and on endless?

Do you find pirates to make the game harder or easier ? I feel they make your early game harder, but after you've caught up endless pirates are manageable.

On the other hand the AI seems to struggle to handle them, especially endless pirates vs endless AI. I think what happens is (if you have vaulter DLC) the AI just sends them so much dust (because endless AI bonuses) and doesn't clear their bases well so the AI is kind of shooting itself in the foot.. Did you have a similar impression ?

From my experience pirates make the game harder from early to mid game. Some AI faction(s) do manage to steamroll, some seem to have suffered from pirates or other faction(s) - in case you compare the victory point numbers. Anyway, from my experience AI is more challenging, if you decide to raise it's number in relation to chosen map seize. But hey, I can be wrong about. Perhaps a question of luck - sometimes.