[Arkcon]

Originally posted by Rollo:
This is one area where the AI cheats. It can look at stuff (ship is being retrofitted or not, planetary defenses, etc.) that a human player cannot.

Rollo

edit (after seeing Geo's post): my money is on 2

Every so often it comes up that the AI might have an advantage in detecting targets -- I once tried to gain the advantage for myself by sending a fleet to a system and turning on the attack minister.

I forget what happened exactly -- either the fleet just sat there or flew across the galaxy to attack something else.

I just feel like guessing that it's an algoritim to determine what's likely on the planet based on size and population. And if the AI knocks over the soft target, it could just be coincidence.

Someone could build a map, with two moons, same distance from the warp point, one defended and one not, one enemy ship, and see what happens.

If I tried it, the ship would probably run away for resupply and the get scrapped