Did i screw up or is the comp cheating?

The AI doesn't cheat at all. One thing to remember is that distance matters a lot for Broadcast centers, a few will push back more if they're far enough away. Also don't underestimate how much a lack of Military researches is hurting you.

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Honestly, I expected my ships to do much worse with no military than they have. My complaint really is that it seems like having all the civic stuff researched and a fully-upgraded economy isn't providing me with enough resources to make up for that loss. The fact that my enemy is pumping out ships just as fast with less than half as many planets to support him is kind of confusing too.

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Don't know about that one, would have to see it myself to really say I guess. I do suggest going capital heavy whenever trying for the civic-tech achievement though, it'll allow you to field at least a somewhat functional fleet despite the lack of military techs. Could they also have a lower logistics tech than you (less upkeep)?

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The game's economy is a bit off balance. The AI, if its personality is not a researcher or econonimizer, will barely go beyond the base logistics of a planet. That means they'll usually only have 1-2 civic/military research labs per planet. That means they'll research like a human player would in the beginning, but once they reach the research cap due to not having enough labs, they'll stop funnelling money into research. The extra money they have gets carried over to building ships.

So while you may not have any military research and the full civics side researched, the AI will probably barely be above the 3rd tier.

If the AI is not a fortifier personality, they'll barely build any tactical structures. Actually, I don't think they build any tactical structures at all. That means their planet tactical upgrade is at 0. No tactical structures and no tactical upgrade on each planet means they're spending money on research or stopping the flow of enemy culture. If it can't do either, then they're going to spend the money on ships.

I'm going to assume you've spent a lot of money on tactical structures as well, am I right?

So while you may have really good economy from trade buildings and resaearch upgrades, the AI has an even better economy from being a penny-pincher.

...hence, why the game's economy is a bit off balance.

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I'm not sure what the problem was, but I'm going to put it down to me being outplayed for now. I went back to an autosave 45 minutes old and acted more aggressively to secure the choke point asteroid and the rebel-infested volcano planet and absolutely crushed purple. I think what happened the first time was that I assumed purple was under control based on his small share of the map and concentrated my resources on finishing the civ tech tree for the accomplishment while purple sat in his corner and built up a fleet. He probably had lower fleet support costs allowing him to keep up with my production since I believe I had just upgraded fleet support right before the surprise attack. Also, my forces were spread out all over the system, so my superior capital ships got picked apart in pairs while my mass of cobalts slowly dwindled. I also noticed the computer made obsessive use of severun overseers to keep his fleet repaired. He often had more overseers doing repair work than he had line combat ships! I didn't notice this until it was far too late to do much about it.

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I'm playing on Pandemonium, trying to earn the 'TEC civic research only' achievement and some others (culture and no fighters) and I've run into some serious problems. I control about 3/4 of the system, including 2 desert, 2 terran, 2 asteroid, 1 ice planet and 2 metal extractors in asteroid belts. red controls a volcano world which is overrun by insurgents thanks to my culture but which I can't take because the insurgents attack me when I show up and my fleets are busy elsewhere. Purple controls 2 desert worlds, 2 asteroids, and the dead asteroid chokepoint in the center, and he's wiping the floor with me. I have the entire civic research tree, and a dozen refineries and trade ports. every last penny is going into producing reinforcements from 3 frigate factories, but somehow the computer is producing reinforcements faster than I can kill his ships and killing my ships faster than I can reinforce. On top of that, he's also pushing back my culture even though I have 8 broadcast centers. I broke down and cheated by surrendering to get a look at his worlds and found not a single refinery or trade port, only 1 frigate factory, and only 6 media hubs. He doesn't have jump gates, so that's not where all the ships are coming from. I've already pretty much lost at this point, since all of my experienced capital ships are dead, but I'd really like to know just why many hours went down the drain just as it looked like I had 4 achievements in the bag. Any ideas?

You could just reload the game and take over the AI and see everything he has built or researched, as it is now your own.

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