• AI always builds science ship and fits it
  
• construction ship will build mining stations at the best spots available EARLY and will stop if there is a democratic contract fullfilled, even if juicy spot available (like a 4 units discovered a bit later)
  
• oligarchy can give a significant starting advantage depending of the objective (bonus) selected.
  
• the same way democracy with research station is doomed for influence in the first mandate

• often move the pop on research factory to resource spot
  
• colony ship is touching ground around 2206 on the best nearby (max 3 systems far, usually 2) planet found in this timeline, although "best" would not always be what the player would choose.
  
• AI builds a building far in advance to pop growth. So the thing saying the AI builds in an optimized timeline isn't true at all.
  
• construction ship may build one research station, clearly not at the best spot possible
  
• if there is a 5 or higher resource spot, there will be a station sooner or later (but rather sooner)

• always only focuses on nearby systems and can use both ships for core system survey
  
• never use fleet for discovery and always circle around the core systems (never go straight in a direction like a human player may be tempted to do - well I do at least)
  
• always go for anomalies if less than or equal to 10% failure rate
  
• does not research wreckages even when clearly at his advantage
  
• AI do get some juicy anomalies and events from time to time. For example, one got Mining II unlocked on its first anomaly event (some mining site to investigate)

• I haven't identified any particular pattern other than "always spaceport" (see below) in the way AI selects its researches. One would figure a Militarist AI would favor fleet related items but actually most AI are selecting at least one ship research at each iteration if they are able to. They often go for shield or armor if presented this option.
  
• AI rarely use the research expertise synergy. Research selection seems to ignore the affinity of the researcher.
  
• will always take spaceport II if research is present even if expensive, possibly spaceport III on the next roll too
  
• AI can sometimes leave a research slot empty for a long time. Who exactly said it is optimized compared to player?

• AI always prepares for piracy around 2203 by building a few corvettes but does not add admiral to fleet
  
• AI will not attempt to fullfill a democratic mandate for research stations, even if it is possible for him. This means this AI has a significant influence handicap at start. A player will also have a hard time completing this mandate in time.

They actually have many drawbacks:

• they have the same research output as other empires meaning they stand at +50% research cost. However they will fill the gap while normal empires go for first colonization.
  
• for the very first research: they can select only among 2 researches in society and 1 in engineering
  
• they are extremely low on unity but they are building unity sites on all other systems as the same time they fill the gap for research speed.
  
• there sector balancing is extremly bad and they are configured at 50% for both minerals and energy credits. Actually the sector is configured to not respect tiles resources but kept on balanced.

They have these advantages:

• they have 8 corvettes at start
  
• they have one more science ship and one more construction ship
  
• they have 4 initial systems all with a spaceport each, 1 of the system is in a sector unless they have a cap of 5 systems at start

Overall, by 2210 they will have filled the gap in unity and research making them a serious opponent/partner.

How good the first 10 years are clearly depends how good is the initial location and systems under influence. Most favored AI can roll on 50 minerals by 2204. On the other hand, democratic governments with a research mandate are crippled for influence in the 10 first years.

While the way AI handles resources, discovery and research, is comparable to the player's, there is one major fault in the AI design regarding colonization and discovery I'm going to illustrate now. Colony wise, for the first colony to set, time and RNG will be the ones to decide. Here are 4 great candidates I found 2 systems far of the capital, all with 80% habitability. A human player would likely have selected one of these while surveying a bit farther than the immediate surroundings, and find these few gems close by:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1227959864
This was the most interesting colony candidate position-wise, yet still quite closed by the capital. Lack of energy and modifier makes for a colony focused on minerals and research
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1227960125
Perfectly balanced but lack betharian. Still one of the planet I would go without a doubt if it was available to me.
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1227960398
Another balanced, yet with fewer resources spots. It is still a 25 perfect modifier planet for fast expansion.

http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1227961020
This is the one I would have selected because of resources and position from capital which was acceptable. The position actually sucks a bit as it does not add up to much in term of land but what the AI have chosen is even worse.

And now what the AI selected, which was the only system with Betharian within the core system sphere of influence:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1227959412

That was a rather dumb move. Hopefully someone may be able to do something with these two (locked) Betharian spots sometime.

A human player will need some luck and more guts to get the better of his hand compared to AI, in the very start of the game. But this will immediately makes for a significant difference: player's influence area will be wider and with more resources than AI's one. There's no doubt unless you got a very unlucky starting location (which seems almost impossible: there is very often an immediate colony with 1 Betharian spot)

They discovered their immediate neighbours (playing with clustered positioning option). it took them much longer than for a player. They sticked to their immediate surroundings until the end.

Most are angry with their neighbours. Not much diplomacy so far except for races with xenophile/pacifist etho next to each other which have built-up into a federation! The Diplomacy tradition tree was raised all the way to get to this.

A war has been already fought between spiritualist and slaver and the truce was declared after the small fleets clashed against the spaceports defense.

There is no research trade agreement or other relation of this sort going on.


AI colonization is mostly scripted. It is not rare to see two colony ships of two close empires taking off at the same time. Their pace in colony building and landing is fast: most AI will have 4 colonies and if at only 3 then the colony ship is in the spaceport building queue.

How colonies are selected is far too simple, or should I say lazy. The AI will land on the next 80% habitable system close to one it already owns. It isn't accounting for the gap filling from colony growth and as such is actually wasting quite some area of influence it could have grasped over time. The colonies too are not always of the best grade. The main factor clearly appears to be the 80% habitability of the planet. At this stage, only one AI has created an outpost and it was on the opposite side of an opponent it was at war with.

Conclusion: the key difference for a player is in selecting a colony for both its resource, habitability and how it will expand immediately and later his empire. The AI will lay waste for colonies far too close to each other with little benefit for border expanding and will later have to add outposts to expand further. Colonizing a planet farther and spending in the border range department early is probably a good tactic for the player. It may even be worth to unlock two traditions trees early.


No change in the number of construction ship: still only one.

Most AI have fully developped their mining stations. Some have actually built all possible stations they could at this point. It is clear that any AI aims to have at least a production of 48 minerals and strives to make it 85 if they can. For most AI, minerals production is a key objective. Advanced AI already reached 95 minerals per month.

For this, AI frequently uses a strange tactic consisting in moving the pop from the temple to a resource factory from time to time, according to an agenda I cannot identify.

Most AI have buildup a significant amount of energy credits and minerals and are high on energy credits, with usually a bit more than 1000 of each. They seem to reserve this stock for unexpected needs.

A few wealthy AI have decided to raise their food cap to 1000. The reason for this is quite unclear to me: the reason is clearly not because of too much food produced and is not either because of peace.

Even if they unlocked resources factory of tier II, almost no AI have upgraded their building. This does not seem to be a priority.

Conclusion: building as many mining stations as possible appears to be a decisive factor for wealth to any AI. This means station-starved empires are an easier prey and stations guerilla tactic is probably efficient on the long term against them.


No change in the number of science ships: still two of them. One AI is using assist research on its main system although it is clearly a waste with the output produced (+8 at best)

There is a common factor: all of the AI have researched or are researching Spaceport III on 2220.01.01.

Otherwise the gap in research speed between the empires is steep. On average an AI has an output of 12 per research category but many have an uneven production: the highest output was 28. Materialists aren't actually the most gifted in term of research speed.

What clearly matters is how many research stations can be constructed within the border. This clearly makes for the decisive factor in term of research output. All AI will build more or less science stations up to the point of building all the ones available. It does not account much for how many points a research a station gives. Even a research station of 1 will be built.

The fastest empires have completed 7 tier 1 researches in each category at this point. The majority stands at 4 tier 1 or 2 researches per category. There is no particular lead to tell which research is selected. Spaceport modules come up frequently and they are certainly using these modules early.

Conclusion: if the player does not want to be lacking in this department, he needs to at least double his science output in the 10 years to come. It is wise to aim for 3 times the initial output to keep in the leading board meaning 15 each.


The average fleet is 600 and the cap is 27. Advanced AI is at 1,3k fleet power and 45 cap.

Almost all the AI have unlocked or are unlocking Spaceport III. Advanced AI is the only one having built a few destroyers. Most systems have a spaceport with 2 or 3 modules which will always at least be: +3 energy, Corvette Assembly Yards.

The reason for the AI being able to build a fleet from scratch is coming clear with this: it has built up a decent stock of unused minerals, eneregy is high enough to sustain additional ships and it has at least 2 spaceports with +33% build speed for corvettes, not accounting for the other leader bonuses.

That said, the weapons are still all tier 1, with the tier 1 energy generator unlocked for most of them. Half the AI will have unlocked the first stage of shield or armor (never both). Build-wise, the fleet is composed of ships fit with half shield half armor up to what the generator allows. Even FE has this balanced shield vs armor build.

Take notice that advanced AI is already a strong force to account for. They are superior to all other AI in the relation panel.

Conclusion: all AI have a decent defense level, even Xenophiles and Peaceful ones. The spaceports are mostly fully grown and the early investment in assembly yards means they can build fleet relatively fast. If the player does not plan for a doom stack, it would be wise to also invest in assembly yeards. All spaceports are fit with a +3 energy credits module. The player should clearly do the same.


It is the other gap between empires. While some empires have finished their first tradition tree, others are struggling at getting the 4th tradition. The differences in unity production is very significant, and not only due to differences in Ethos. It ranges from 2 to 19 unity per month. One could think the advanced AI is handicaped on this point due to large pops and systems: it actually copes with it early raising its unity production to 10 and unlocked 4 traditions.

Unity generating buildings are a priority for most colonies but they often left by a pop moved to a minerals factory. It looks like the AI aims for a tradition and then moves to resource build-up and then come back to unity or wait for the grown pop to fill the gap.

It is important to note that a significant number of the AI have or are up to complete the Expansion tradition tree. Traditions are always obtained one tree at a time and the tradition tree unlocked appears to match the empire identity. Peaceful empire go for Diplomacy or Expansion while non Materialist to get Prosperity or Discovery. Strangely Spiritualist did not go for Harmony and warmongers were not going for Domination or Supremacy first.

First research trade agreements are going on between allies and more rivalry for the other ones.

The federation gained one more member but is overall pretty weak!

The advanced empire is the strongest force if not for the FE.


Most AI have expanded at the same rate, a few even expanded at three times their initial rate passing from 2 to 6 colonies but resulting in far too great of a research cost increase (180 months for most researches).

The colonies are still 2 systems away from the existing ones. The increase in border range is minimum as a result.

A problem has came to light, which is likely going to put this campaign to an end quite soon: wormholes empires have stalled their expansion completely! They did not build wormholes at other place than the systems they colonized which resulted in them not building stations, surveying or colonizing anything! They are pretty much relying on their existing few colonies. They are weak on fleet but rather strong technology-wise.

Conclusion: AI with wormholes has a serious issue!


All AI increased their construction ships by one unit.

Wealthy empires have evolved their production units to next tier.

The resources output increase is sort of related to how well or bad the expansion has gone. Most empires have raised it a bit over what it was in 2220 but the amount clearly appears to be lacking compared to the progression of the first 20 years.

Most AI have built all the stations they could and the construction ships are docked at spaceport.

Conclusion: differences are clearly appearing. While the advanced AI is yet increasing its economy power, many of the other forces have came closed to a standstill. This is likely the result of them colonizing too close systems which limits the expansion of their borders and thus fails to gain ownership over new stations.


All empires built one more science ship.

Major differences are observed:

• empires who expanded too quickly are now facing a very high research cost which will make them weaker on the military/fleet side.
  
• all empires that are stalled for systems inside their border range have split their science ship into assist research and scouting of near forces.
  
• the increase in science output is very different from empire to empire. In average, a player should increase its science production by 15 per category to stand as an equal to the AI meaning aiming at 30 each is a safe bet.
  
• the rush for Spaceport research has came to a deep gap: the worst empire have unlocked Spaceport III while the average has unlocked IV and the advance empire is unlocking V and cruisers.

Conclusion: the difference in research cost due to loose expansion or ethic boosts have kicked in and are now clearly drawing a line between half of the empires.


Advanced AI destroyed an empire and got all its systems! At the same time it is still the strongest force in presence by far with a fleet power of 4k composed of 1/3 Destroyers. In comparison most fleets of other empires stand at 1k and have a few Destroyers. Also the advanced AI is the only empire going to unlock Cruiser within the next 10 years.

Empires that have not been stalled for a reason or another have built a defense station near each spaceport.

Except for the advanced AI, the fleet cap of all AI did not increase by any other mean than research (which amounts to almost nothing at this stage).

Spaceports are now fit with Destroyer Assembly Yards and are with no module space left.

The empires with the best research speed salvaged tier 2 weapons and shields, even 2 types of weapons this way, but they are lacking in fleet strength.

Conclusion: the advanced AI has most probably turned the tide in its favor, if not for the FE, considering that about half of the other empires are crippled. The most advanced empire technology wise is also crippled by being in a narrow space with the other side being blocked by an empire with closed borders. A standard empire fleet stands at 1,5k in fleet power. At this point, the victory of the advanced AI seems possible, if not for the FE (which is on the opposite side). The advanced AI has a large open space to colonize freely with above average resources and tactical resources.


Yet another big difference between the empires. The fastest empire, a spiritualist one, unlocked 2 trees, completed one and has one tradition unlocked on the other. The majority just completed a tree. The weakest only unlocked 3 traditions in a single tree.

The most successful empires appear to be the ones with spiritualist etho and Alien Zoo. The advanced AI is doing average and finished the Expansion tree.

A third of the empires are crippled for unity at this point.

Trade agreement intensify.

Something really fun happened: the once destroyed empire has reborn from ash! Truly astonishing. So there is now a single insurgent colony in the middle of the advanced AI. And I discovered a HUGE thing from that. More to read in the military section.


Confirmed wormhole empires are a mess. And guess what, advanced AI has wormholes. It is not able to expand any further as long as it won't create a wormhole in the far outer side. It does not seem it will going to happen soon.

http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1236868197

The one in the nebula is a splendid free Gaia 25 tiles world (not Holy). And there are two other systems of same standing nearby. The one on the left is almost as good.

This means the currently successful empires are the peaceful ones and materialist with other FTL than wormhole. Some of these have expanded like crazy (8 colonies plus 2 sectors of 3 systems in total) but MOSTLY within their existing area of influence, seriously...

http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1236866091

Conclusion: you want to beat a wormhole empire? Easy as ♥♥♥♥: take any system within their reach that could be of interest to them. And that's it you crippled them for good.


Mostly a mess. Some empire have a mix of T1 to T3 energy factories but most stand at T1 mainly.

No change in construction ship. Actually they are docked at spaceport for many empires.

Mineral production increased a bit. By 1/3 for the best one to only a few units for many other ones. They are self sufficient and does not suffer from any shortcomings.


Some science ships are actually docked or have nothing to do (wormhole empire mainly)

The differences in research speed are mostly the same. On average an empire performs by doing a 1000 research point in 44 months.

The new objective is to get 10 more per category: about 40.

Conclusion: no particular direction in research.


A few empires have unlocked cruiser. Most have put their fleet close to their cap which means doubling their existing fleet. A strong cap is 79. That puts them a bit below 4k fleet for the most powerful (advanced AI and materialist are now about the same level). Average is 1,7k probably because the highest ship level is still destroyer for them.

And then something totaly unexpected happened: one of the system taken by the advanced AI revolted and gained independance. In the system it is known as the same AI number as at the beginning of the game but with a different surname. Not a big deal you'll say. Well until I discovered that the new reborn empire has... all the techs researched by the advanced AI (including their ships and loadout - crispy). So here's the deal: who is going to befriend this small empire and get a research agreement with it??

Regarding the loadout, the advanced AI moved to T2 kinetic and T1 autocanon. The armor 2 and shield 2 is unlocked as well as energy power 3. The other forces are lower by one on defense, attack strength and power. But the advanced AI is seeing no one due to its 'small' issue with wormhole. So it's attacking no one. lol.

Another strange thing happened: many of the spaceports with corvette and destroyer assembly yards have removed them. It is the case for most empires with no hostile empire in view. Advanced AI is still fully equiped and many of its spaceports are at 1,7k force.

Conclusion: something fun happened with rebelous colony and the discovery that it has equal technology may be a boon for players who may profit or suffer from the same!


No real change. The empires that were low on unity are still low despite building a few unity buildings. The best empires are the advanced AI and spiritualist pacifist. They have one tree completed and 1 tradition in another tree. The progress is clearly slowing down.

One empire actually tried to unlock 3 trees at the same time. So the thinking they go one tree at a time isn't actually always true.