[Taqwus]

The AI isn't adapting very well, if at all, to what players do; for instance, I don't think one would shift from all missiles to having at least some beams if you show up with dedicated point-defense BBs in a combined-arms fleet. Nor, for that matter, does it have a notion of a good fleet design; I don't recall ever seeing a fleet that included a good mix between combat and non-combat ships. Even if one could define fleet compositions in .txt files, it'd still need to deduce when and how to use them, since a proper fleet composition depends on how much you know about your opponents' preferences, as well. Actually, it should take just about everything into account...

For that matter, it's research and build strategies aren't affected that much by quadrant parameters. Try a mid-life; clusters are far easier than mid-lifes, I suspect, because the AI isn't good at using SM and espionage to foil warp-point defenses and w/ a ML you usually have a far longer border. Especially with a low ship count limit, that can present more problems.

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-- The thing that goes bump in the night