The conditions that make the AI switch states are hard-coded and not available to players in any way.
MM had a special debug mode in the game for a while that let us watch and see what modes the AI was using (to help develop AI mods, of course...
and it seemed to spend more time in 'short term defense' mode than anything else.
As a general rule, it will be in 'exploration' mode when there are no enemies to deal with. So, yes, the first part of most games will be spent entirely in exploration mode until first contact with periodic breaks for 'Infrastructure' mode.
First reaction to an enemy incursion is 'Defend - short term' and since anyone you don't have a treaty above 'non-intercourse' with is an enemy that would be why it spends so much time in that mode.
When the AI wants to get aggressive it goes into 'prepare for attack' mode and this is obvious if you are the object of attack. We've all seen it. The fleet that is going to attack you will sit there in plain view as it builds up. If the attack fails it assesses its strength according to its own secret standards and either starts a new buildup or goes into 'infrastructure' mode to build up its strength some more before checking to see if it ought to attack someone -- assuming it is not attacked in turn before getting around to that.
The other modes are very rarely used, unfortunately. I
never once saw the AI use 'defend - long term' mode.
[ February 23, 2004, 03:47: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]