AI concerns

[neofit]

I have posted a thread Last week saying that the game was rather easy on the default settings. I have been given the advice to try the Hard settings.

So I have started a new campaign on the Hard difficulty, small Quadrant, Many empires, leaving the bonus on 'None' for the moment. The beginning was a bit tighter, a zealot neighbor kept harassing me right from the beginning with his escorts then frigates. I managed to live through it though and stood firmly on my feet. Then empires started falling one after another.

AI empires do not fight effectively, be they the attacker or on the defending end. They keep sending their fleets piecemeal, and generally have very little in terms of ship numbers. Then I started paying closer attention and found out why: the AI is completely incompetent. I invade a system and find 10 Miners Mk.I on planet with 4% in minerals. Next to it, in the same system, 6 research facilities on a 140% minerals planet. This is an extreme example, the rule is more like Mineral Mining on 40-70% planets, and research/intel on 100%+ planets.
[No wonder the local liberated population gets Happy/Jubilant a couple of turns after being liberated, like a thanks for ridding them of their previous incompetent rulers ]

How does one expect to build an empire with that? I now own 3/4 of the Quadrant (about 150 turns, I like to take my time, research the maximum before they are crushed, outfit mu ships with the newest), but I feel that since I started expanding out the security 1/4 that I amassed my forces and resources in, the game is more like a mopping up operation than a conquest.

AI hasn't gotten better in the war department either. It is about year My missile tactics still do wonders. 2 Missile light cruisers with 2 Flak ships do wonder. I haven't lost a single ship so far, in fact only had one receive two bars of damage only because I felt too lazy to reform my fleet to flat away from an already doomed enemy ship.

Another strangeness. I provoked a crew insurrection on a Colony ship in a sector that was 2 sectors away from my nearest outpost. The ship happened to be right next to a colonizable planet, next to 4 other planets already colonized by the enemy. I thought "wth, let's colonize it", it will be fun even if I it gets crushed the next turn. So I do it and start counting turns. 2 turns later I make a platform. 5 turns later I make a pace Yard III. 3 turns - flak ship; 4 turns - Missile Ship. Noone seems to care. Ships of two empires I am at war with cruised by, alone and in pairs yet nobody tried to destroy that colony, and now it's too late for them.

I thought about starting a new campaign giving the computer some bonuses. But 4% in minerals will still be 20% with maximum bonus. I am afraid it will give the computer an enormous advantage at the beginning, then be almost the same in the endgame.

Besides, does the bonus apply to all AI resources, the 'minable' ones as well as Research and Intelligence? I'd rather give the minerals bonus but nothing to research, since in my current game some races have Battlecruisers just like me, yet hardly enough resources to build them with.

Can the AI ferry population between the planets that reached their cap and newly colonized ones? I haven't seen any evidence of that so far, all their homeworlds are capped, and never saw an AI transport with population in it.

Are things like where does the AI build its facilities, the fact that it prefers sending ships piecemeal, etc., hardcoded in the game or it can be modified in a mod? If so, are there any mods where this AI behaviour is fixed? I would soo love to have to fight for every system, not just the first 5.