How is the AI?
 

I was thinking of picking this game up but was wondering if the AI is a challenging opponent? I have Galactic Civilizations which has very good AI but seems somewhat lacking in options like SEIV appears to have. I only play vs. the computer so please don't suggest PBEM or other methods. So how does the AI stack up especially compared to Galactic Civilizations? Thanks in advance.

Re: How is the AI?
 

The AI has many shortcomings, but it can be challenging for a decently good player if you don't take advantage of them. The most important things to not do if you want a challenging game against the AI are to demand gifts/tribute, demand surrender, and propose unfair trades. The AI cannot intelligently determine the fairness of a trade and will quite happily trade away all its planets for a lot of tech. It also doesn't take it's empire's size into account when deciding whether to accept a demand for tribute - I once played with a policy of demanding a race's homeworld immediately on first contact, and the first three races I met gave it to me. After the third one, I got bored with that game and quit.

For a challenging AI without changing the rules of the game, get the TDM modpack, and always play with many hard AI's with high bonus.

For the hardest single-player experience available, and a lot of changes to game play, get the AI Campaign mod from here.

I haven't played GalCiv, so I don't know how SEIV's AI compares to that.

Re: How is the AI?
 

I would also advise you to use a non-optimal Empire file, or even to take one of the ones used by the AI. A human player can easily have three times as many points to use as the AI, which is quite an overwhelming advantage for the player.

Re: How is the AI?
 

Thanks for the info, that was very helpful!