bonus tiles and AI's choice of planets

Cause it's still somewhat retarded so that the idiots can actually win on the easier levels.

That's not a good reason. The AI can be "dumbed down" on easier levels if required, but there's no reason that on any level "normal" or above, the AI would intentionally choose an inferior planet.

There are multiple threads where this is discussed, and the concensus seems to be that whatever planet the AI finds _first_ is the one that it sends the colony to. So if it sees a class 6 planet before the class 14, it creates a colony ship, and sends it there. It doesn't re-evaluate "have I found any better planets?" the way that a human would.

I hope they change this in 1.3.

I reckon the AI works on proximity at lower levels and PQ at mid to high.

Guess its kind of like a guy not renting the mansion and instead the apartment because it has a subway down the road.

Once they set a ship on autopilot, they leave it on autopilot regardless of circumstances. You ought to see transports and escorts dancing around each other trying to mate up, when neither of them will be still long enough to hit the same square at the same time. Funny as hell to watch it.

EDIT:
By which, I meant that I agree that they see that planet first and have already sent a ship towards it. The ship's on autopilot and they only change course if someone beats them there.

yep. it's the same reason it's easy to shoot down their transports or sneak up behind them. and yep, it is a bit annoying.

Thanks for the great answers (except for the "retard" first answer.

What about the bonus tiles? Are they programmed to be more frequent on class 10 or less planets?