So normally the AI isn't much of a challenge, and truth be told it isn't playing very smart now either however...
I can't hit his ships
It's a custome race that I built around the idea of xenophobic religous fanatics and whenever we meet in battle, which has been often, they totally destroy me. At first it was from him having the Talisman and a 125% Defense characteristic. That combo took out a fleet of 50 of my battleships and battle cruisers with maybe 10 smaller ships of his... disheartening to say the least. The addition of better scanners and more shields/armor to my new ships has improved the situation greatly but the one thing that the AI is doing smartly is the use of engine damaging weapons. Nearly everyone of his combat ships has 2 of these and they are crippiling my ships so fast that my repair boats can't keep up.
Anyone have any good strategies for dealing with engine damagers? Apparently shields don't apply and it seems like they skip armor as well?