The AI defeats itself
 

One thing I have noticed as I enter into my sixth game where I have over 300 turns is that most of the AI's are in the process of defeating themselves. Instead of concentrating on utilizing their exsisting planets, they just colonize and build war ships. Once all the planets within their grasp have been colonized, not used, just colonized, they pritty much just move war ships from one location to another and scrap them out. The AI is self defeating in this regard as I have easily taken enemies around turn 300+ that at the on set of the game were wiping me all over the map.

One other thing that really strikes me as odd is the fact that the AI seldom if ever presses an advantage. They destroy my fleet, leaving many sectors and systems open for conquest, yet they simply just sit there doing nothing.

One other thing that really frustrates me about the AI is the fact that I often have to switch them to manual in order to keep the game from freezing up. The defeats the purpose of the game as I then know where they are located and what there strength is.

Perhaps with the next patch, many of the AI issues can be addressed. Once of course, they have been identified.

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"We've made too many compromises already, too many retreats! They invade our space and we fall back -- they assimilate entire worlds and we fall back! Not again! The line must be drawn here -- this far, no further! And I will make them pay for what they've done!" -- Patric Stewart as Captain Picard
UCP/TCO Ship Yards

Re: The AI defeats itself
 

That indeed is strange behaviour http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon9.gif. Is the AI running low on its resources? That could cause it to scrap huge amounts of its ships.
In those late games that i have observed the
AI usually goes to somesort of upgrading frenzy when it researches something upgradable. Very often this causes the AI
to run low on some of its resources and this
in turn causes it to start scrapping its ships. Problem could perhaps be partially solved by spreading those upgradable buildings in AI research txt file so that there is some time between those research
advances that force the AI into upgrading frenzy (it will replenish it's stocks while it is researching something else). Most of those upgrade buildings are very late in the
AI research txt file, so this might cause it to only happen in extreme late game. You were using mephistos mod? In this mod atleast the EA will build Atmospheric converters on its new planets as soon as it
researches the tech for it. This causes much strain on AI's economy and could force it
to scrap it's ships (if the AI has weak economy).