Normal vs. Hard strangeness

[Taqwus]

(Some of the following may be more due to recently adding patch 2, but...)

I've noticed certain, at least to me, very strange changes in the AI behavior in going from normal (in previous games) to hard. I'm pretty sure it's actually Hard, not Easy, since it's the first game I've seen the AI try to bomb planet conditions, lower planet value, steal resources, and otherwise put up a fight intel-wise...

It's a LONG, huge game, so it's not like the following should be due to tech issues (e.g. I'm pretty sure that at least one AI has a score of at least 2M points, since I was declared Mega-Evil 'round the time I hit 3M or maybe shortly before, when I ramped up warship production. So it's not like I rampaged up and down the quadrant early; they've had plenty of time/space to build up.).

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* No minefields at all encountered, while exploring the territory of four AIs. None. This may be related to the patch, which weakened minelaying, but *none* ?

* No bases of any kind seen so far. I used to run into shipyard bases fairly frequently, and occasionally the odd armed base. I don't think I've even spotted a shipyard ship, which also used to happen fairly frequently.

* The Phong aren't using Combat Sensors/ECM. I *know* they have the Combat Sensors, at least, because they've built satellites w/ Tachyon III which implies Sensors 6. ISTR that they used to. For that matter, the Norak didn't use ECM either, although I can't be sure they had it. They're dead now, so it's too late for a tech check.

* Thought on intel ops -- I have yet to see an AI steal one of my ships or planets that way. Also, it should probably de-emphasize atmosphere bombing versus an Organic race, since w/ Replicant III my base pop growth will be 40+ M/turn anyway regardless of planet conditions.


[ More AI ship design/use comments, perhaps not related to AI difficulty actually --

- The Phong should often fire the HEM *before* the Shard Cannons. There's no sense in letting the Shard Cannon projectiles (AP) bounce off a shield if the HEM will bring it down; conversely, there's no advantage to putting normal weapons like the HEM after AP weapons, since bypassing armor doesn't destroy it and make it easier for non-AP weapons (except in the rare case of an ECM hit).

Basically, while target shields are up, order should probably be something like (anti-shield, normal, anti-armor), reversing it afterwards.

- The Noraks, who are Deeply Religious, should NOT emphasize missiles, because one of the perks of DR is the Talisman, which is useless without good beam weapons. CSM V, when it could have been working on always-hitting WMGs, Hellbores, and PPBs? Ach!

- If nobody's using PPBs, it makes more sense to use Shield V than Phased I.
]

Unrelated silliness --

* Ship Construction 10 (which used to give the SY III facility) appears to be useless, now that the space yard facilities are granted by the Space Yard tech tree instead.

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-- The thing that goes bump in the night