Faction Goals

Glad to see someone put this to words.   I'd wondered about it, but not enough to say 'hey...  this seems a bit off'.

Currently, the player has to know ahead of time and plan for the belligerence of all AI, whether Sophon (typically peaceful), or Lumeris (trade based).   I plot out my research accordingly so that my diplomacy kicks in pretty early in game so I can keep them 'actually peaceful'.

Granted, I've noted that some races are far more aggressive in their initial contacts, but have had Sophons and Lumeris both attack me very early in game  (my planets, not just wandering ships).

Love the way you've shaped it:

... a rather nonsensical and unclear "generic" gameplan ...

... finding all deals to be universally distasteful ...

This idea should get some good attention, as AI in its current form is "NOT that good". We are at the very beginning, though. Can't improve AI before tech tree and planet grid are in their final state, guess, we should expect changes to AI in update 3, not earlier.

Building a smarter AI is always a challenge. 

Usually, the default for increased difficulty is place penalties on player factions and bonuses on AI factions for construction, etc. AI forces tend to be comprised of many units and, so far in ES2, the fleets are 'dumb'. Lots of ships that attack in waves, rather than as mass fleets - which makes them much easier to defeat. Also, in a recent bug post (https://www.games2gether.com/endless-space-2/forum/114-bug-reports/thread/23771-ai-doesn-t-spend-hero-points), I noted that the AI doesn't seem to be spending their Hero experience points. And when you take over their systems, they always seem to be underdeveloped.

I agree with WimeSTone - hopefully we will see smarter AI behaviour in Update 3. Give the Devs a chance