[God Emperor]

The problem that most modders have identified I believe is that the AI cannot effectively utilise a combination of weapons, and also will immediately use the level 1 Version of a weapon over a previous (say) level 5 type. This encourages the choice of a limited number of weapons with similar (long ranges) - ie PPB, NSP, APB, CSM. Other special weapons such as engine overloaders and shield depleters can be useful and interesting secondary weapons but thats about it.
I have found modding to be a process of determining the weapon, ship design etc that AI can best use under all circumstances (because it is incapable of paper-rock, scissors-paper, rock-scissors reactions).

In ship design, the best example of this is that all of my races include minesweeping components and their minesweepers are armed. A human would most likely have a dedicated fleet of minesweepers but the AI's poor use of its ship types leads to the design of ships that can do a bit of everything - ie so that when the AI encounters a given circumstance, all of its warships have some ability to contribute to a solution.

As a result, I do not intend to make radical changes in my races with regard to weapon use - the PPB's, NSP's, APB's and CSM's are the best all round weapons that a non organic/temporal/ psychic AI can use effectively (IMHO).

I would be interested though to hear if anyone can get the AI to effectively use other weapon types or combinations.

Regards,
GE