"hehehe, honestly I don't care if someone want to use something that I did.
Anyway, the Aquilaeian colony ships are not "armed colony ships": I only wanted colony ships with more fuel range and cloak capabilities. In my view (only my opinion, of course), strong colony ships are a waste of time (construction time), and resources."
The colonizers the Vikings use are "kind of" armed. Well, you will see
. I don't worry about the time and cost too much (but I can see your point). I just wanted to include something I have never seen other AIs use to provide some new challenges for players. IMHO the best thing about it is that the players don't recognize a weak colonizer anymore just by its hull.
"How many starting planets? With your current settings, probably you will meet one or two races very fast, and then, if you have started the game with 1 started planet, they will have a short time to develop their own empires."
Only one planet. I have made contact with the Aquilaeian and the Vikings very early. I wanted it that way, because I am interested about the early stages of the AI mostly. IMHO they have to be quite strong in the beginning, when the humans are still vulnerable. *evil* HeHeHE */evil* The Aquilaeian are giving me a good run for my money, because I don't have good PDs, yet.
"Although I have optimized the Aquilaeian to play without bonus, I think that always is good play at least with Medium AI bonus."
I have developed and tested the Vikings without bonus so far also. I just put in a small bonus, so that at least I have some challenge.
Rollo