Get up, get up get up get down, this AI is a joke in your town.

Okay, I did participate in the beta, but still a lot of things changed from beta to release and I already am beating the AI quite handily. Play multiplayer? Well SOASE games take a long time and also my internet speed is acting up   

Games I've played:
4 player FFA Medium/Hard Flashpoint and Tempest Maps.
3 Hard Teamed AIs vs me Tempest/Flashpoint Maps
1v1 on Cynosian Rift Hard
1v1 on Gaian Crescent Hard
Fast speed. Games are taking 1:30 for a 1v1 up to 3-4 hours for a FFA so the AI has plenty of time.

Played TEC,Vasari and Advent, winning vs hard with each (prefer vasari by far)

All my games seem to go the same:
-Build up small force, level up capital ship while grabbing as many planets as possible
-Start raiding AI
-Pirates get on me, so go home to defend.
-Second capital comes online as well as 2nd fleet upgrade. Now can attack at 2 places at once.
-AI runs away from main fleet, his planets get bombed and taken. Note that everytime the AI runs he loses a few frigates or a capital gets heavily damaged.
-20 minutes of my 2 fleets taking care of pirates or AI sending 7-9 bombing ships, yawnage.
-First AI capital system falls, the AI will do a last stand at his home planet but by this time I have research and fleet superiority so it is far too late and his fleet gets wiped easily. Spend next 20 minutes rebombing planets he has recolonized and putting up my own colonies (it gets somewhat tiresome as he uses all siege fleets and colony ships which don't hurt me but are a royal pain to track down and kill)
-Kill more pirates.
-Resource domination, fleet domination, capital ship level domination.
-Other AIs fall.

Main AI problems:
-Does not research military techs. All of my post game reports me researching 40+ military techs and the AI maybe grabbing 5. This breaks the AI as he never gets cruisers or improves his fleet.
-Does not attack. The AI uses the siege frigate spam, but unless that is against my capital planet I hardly care. I rarely if at all see him use his Capital ships and fleet offensively.
-Does not build stationary defenses. Running away is great for the AI to do...but you need to retreat to either your fortified center and hang your fleet there or fall back and build up defenses there.
-Does not use abilities the best way. Most of the abilities on my ships I don't set on auto-cast, I would *love* to set them on auto-cast but the AI never uses them well.


I hope it won't take 3-6 months to get the AI competitive like it took GC2, I wonder if I should go back to GC2, the AI is probably real good now.

Suggestions on maps and settings for best play experience are appreciated. A list of good non-pirate maps might be good as the pirates may be hurting the AI much more than they hurt me.