I already knew they cheated in those ways, and would assume it's intentional, but damn that's a big difference.

Vicious isn't too hard in large FFA games.  The trick is to set up Diplomatic alliances and let them thrash each other for you.  1v1 on the other hand... nope.  I've done it against Cruel, but it took me 5 hours for that one game.  You have to quickly establish critical chokepoints and fortify them against massive invasion fleets. 

I don't really see the point of an AI that cheats to that degree.  You're basically forced to abuse the AIs stupidity in dealing with chokepoints.  I'd rather play hard or unfair AIs and beat them without starbase or Marze abuse.

Geez, that's a retardedly high advantage, lol. Personally I hate cheating AI's, I'd rather AI's just get smarter.

What I don't understand is why at Hard difficulty or above... the AI does not use:

1) Ultimate Ship/Starbase Abilities - I have never seen the AI use Missile Barrage on a lev 10 Marza or detonate a TEC Starbase right before it died to wipe out my fleet... this is HUGE! Frankly this crap should be enabled on Hard+. This would help SO much... I have literally fought a Hard AI fleet that had three level 10 Marzas... at the time I encountered them I didn't have a single Kortul/Marauder... I should have been 100% screwed if they had just activated Missile Barrage all at once. Instead my carriers just wiped the floor with them.

2) Super Weapons. Personally? I'd like to see this, although it'd be hard to make the AI use the P.S. aspects of the Kostura Cannon effectively... infact, it'd be hard for the AI to use that one effectively at all - it takes more finesse than just randomly firing it off like the other two... but it'd be better than nothing.

These two adjustments would be huge in making the game more difficult, honestly. I mean for the AI to not utilize any of the most powerful abilities they can obtain? That's just retarded. Fairly often in this game when I'm fighting several opponents on hard and they finally gang up on me - the only reason I win is because the AI doesn't use a single ultimate. And if I ever tech up a super weapon? It's game over... which sucks... imo the AI should tech up their SW and we should get to have a cataclysmic show down that leaves half the galaxy in ruin, damnit! It'd be nice to actually lose this game once and have it not involve an opponent that just gets 3x the speed/resources that I do (save you speech Sanchez, I'm aware of multiplayer ).

Instead we get AI's that are better at cheating and Super-Pirates that have been chasing the Vasari for 10,000 years. I really feel like IC dropped the ball on this expansion.

You've seen the AI use an ultimate?

At what difficulty?????????????????????????????????????

Yeah, I think capital ships started using their Level 6 abilities by default in Diplomacy.  Oddly enough, the first time I saw it was against an Akkan as well.  It threw me for a loop.  I of course responded by using my own Akkan's Level 6 Armistice afterward.  I think they changed Armistice at some point to make ALL ships in the vacinity Invulernable too.  I'd want to double check, but I remember before that only the Akkan was Invulnerable.  At one point in previous versions of the core game strikecraft used to be able to continue their attack during an armistice as well-- making for an unfair advantage if you had enough bombers to take out a capital ship or two in 60 seconds. 

Once you hit the level 'unfair', I assume they cheat. I didn't know it was that big of a difference, but makes sense now that I think about the abuse they deal. I don't really mind an AI cheating because a human is typically smarter than an AI and can learn their triggers. It would be nicer to have smarter AIs rather than have them cheat, but that's a technological problem that hasn't been solved by people doing far more important work than what goes into a video game.I'm comfortable with it, but glad to know exactly what I'm up against now. Excuse me while I go turtle and cry.

You're asking for too much if you want a non-cheating AI that can keep up with a human. Also, at this point it's highly unlikely that there will any major content patches - IE new AI difficulties or any other major revision to the game. After two years and two expansions(which have pretty much pushed the engine to the limit) there isn't much profit motive to add free content via a patch. Making any major changes to the AI is unfortunately also not possible by modders since it is hardcoded into the game.

Hate to say it, but having a non-cheating AI is not going to pay off anytime soon. There is no AI in the world that can actually learn and grow. That means that no matter how complex they make an AI, it runs into one of two problems. 1) It's complex, but not impossible to figure out with enough time, or 2) it's too big a chunk of programming for reason.

Vicious is beatable, its all about a controlled strategy that involves fighting at strong points with starbases, defenses, and pjis with a largely strikecraft based fleet to minimize your losses while maximizing theirs.  A typical rush expansion is suicidal in games with vicious AI, but rather a slow, but steady pace that allows you to set up defenses (if need be), and strengthen crucial chokepoints.  While the AI may cheat to build more, and stronger units, do not forget that they love fighting starbases, even at the cost of their fleet.  When you have multiple capital ships guzzling down the experience of the ships that the AI wastes, you are in a strong position to make devastating counter attacks at your leisure, whether it be with multiple Missle Barrages as TEC, or multiple level 3 scramble bombers as Vasari.  The only race i would suggest not playing as during a fight against the vicious AI is advent.

They pretty much have to let the AI's cheat at high difficulties.  The Sins AI is pretty decent, but it becomes predictable as you get used to it, and there isn't much of a way around that.  Good players use tricks, traps, and chokepoints.  Eventually the only way to make the AI harder is to just give it huge advantages.

I vote intended.

intended but should not be....

The AI should be more tactical, not just higher level.