[Nitram Draw]

I can understand, but no agree, with your complaints. This is not the first, and certainly not the Last game, that didn't meet everyones expectations, and possible some advertising, which I can't comment on. If you believe all advertising have I got a deal for you.....
As far as the AI is concerned, I agree that it can easily be beaten after a certain point regardless of the difficulity or if it is a stock race or a mod race. It is, after all, a program and once you figure the way to beat it you can repeatedly beat it if you play the same way. This is true of any computer game, regardless of the designers claims on how good their AI is.
I would suggest you try the some of the following and see if you don't feel a little different.
Try the TDM mod
Try playing as a Pirate or Nomad with SJ's Pirate mod.
Try playing the game a different way, don't follow the same research pattern, vary your style, build different ship, etc.
Play a hotseat game if possible.
Play a High Tech game in a small quadrent with 10 good starting planets, 20 races, and 100K starting resource points.
Give them time and the type of internet play you want may still happen.

[This message has been edited by Nitram Draw (edited 25 May 2001).]