AI is CHEATING COMPLETELY!

Maybe they did something different than you did?

Nice bug report, by the way - especially the lack of information about what settings you used, what any race did in any game, or which structures were present on any planet. I'm sure Brad will get right back to you.

By the way, "Would have" is contracted to "Would've", not "Would of".

Ya know, they could have just set spending to 100% and put their focus on 100% research, its not hard... really.

Would you like a hanky to cry into?

Planetary invasion doesn't take 30 weeks to research, especially if you're the Drengin and start with some of the prerequisistes.

How long a tech takes to research depends on how much research infrastructure you have, how much of your spending is directed to research, and how many techs you've acquired so far. 30 turns to get the infrastructure, do the research, deploy a fleet and invade is a little fast, but I'm pretty sure it can be done. Significant invasions in year 1 can definitely happen.

I'd be quite impressed to see the AI do that in my game, though.

Because the AI is the game. Thus, (and here's the good bit) they KNOW HOW TO PLAY THE DAMN GAME.
You need to learn to optimise all your sliders, get some research worlds, get the infrastructure done. The AI will only cheat above at Incredible and above, where it gets a bonus to economy, nothing else. 148 turns is frankly terrible. If I leave till I have a supported infrastructure, enough research, economy, and factories to be competetive (if not in the lead), Planetary Invasion takes me an average of six weeks. 6 weeks of research. Admittedly not including getting stuff set up, but 30 is managable
The proffesionals who reviewed the game gave it very high scores, awards, and in some cases the highest scores ever, and they wouldn't if the AI cheated. It doesn't at most difficulties. It never gets tired or bored, and will keep optimising.
It also doesn't make forum posts complaining that since it thinks it's so uber it should win even when it obviously is doing something wrong, whoevers playing it is cheating.
Quite a few lessons you should learn from the AI

Well let's see I can be nice or nasty... which is it gonna be? ... hmmm...

I guess I'll be nice. Aside from the numerous posts here I'm sure you have read all of the posts about how this AI does not cheat. It must play the game in exactly the same fashion as you. However apparently it is much better at the game then you are at the moment. Keep trying.

And just a word of advice. It usually isn't a wise idea to come to a board full of fans and scream or whine about something that just is not the case. Makes you out to be rather foolish or childish. Can't decide which.

try setting it to a easier difficulty. Beginner is a nice challenge for a first gmae (i assume it's you first game), just keep turning down (or up) the difficulty until you like it

There's also an anomaly that gives you an instant 25% advancement towards whatever tech you're researching. If they found that, 40 turns becomes 30.

The difficulty was on normal and on a medium map oh and another thing the dregin empire had no more than 2 planets i think. So no matter how hard i try to get planetary invasion in 30 weeks with 2/3 planets is (i think) impossible i dont know. And secondly i dont care if the people think that im childish or a whiner, what is this high school? i dont care what people think about me im never going to meet them in person. Thanks for your replies so far.

You could have looked in your debugg.err file to see exactly what happened.

It's possible that the AI were trading around amongst themselves which sped the tech rate up.

Or the Drengin could've researched it alone. It is possible.

Let's all cry wolf again!

I'm playing as the Torians right now. AI is set to Intelligent and umm.. I bee lined towards planetary invasion because I knew I'd be invading the Krox. I got it VERY quickly. Nothing even close to 123 turns or whatever it was. Optimize your sliders.

Build crappy filler units to get your military score up at the beginning of the game. Then you can tank your military slider all the way down and focus on research and infrastructure. Get your econ bonuses, buy constructors to make star bases.. and you can't lose. Honestly, I wish I was a beginner. I don't want to start playing against a econ buffed AI

Good. Glad to know I can scratch you off my list of people I might run into sometime. And since you don't care what others think I'm sure it won't bother you if no one helps you out either.

The difficulty was on normal and on a medium map oh and another thing the dregin empire had no more than 2 planets i think.

The fewer planets they have, the more likely they will get Planetary Invasion quickly. If they don't have to build or buy a lot of colony ships, they can use their starting funds to build up infrastructure and crank the research. In a recent game, I invaded an AI with 10 transports and 6 small ships (and researched space marines) within the first 50 turns, and in retrospect, I wasted time.

Remember that each tech you acquire increases the research cost of all the other techs. Those military techs are a LOT cheaper if they are the first things you research.

I checked and it only took me 11 weeks to research it. Maybe you should learn how to play the game.

Lets throw a pity party, and invite everybody! Life is so hard for us!

I'd really like to know a little more about how to analyze the debugg.err file. Is there a guide someplace, or is it one of those things that you have to figure out yourself? Is there a copy generated for every game, and if so where is it?

I checked and it only took me 11 weeks to research it. Maybe you should learn how to play the game.

BladeVenom is CHEATING COMPLETELY!!!!111oneoneone

For giggles I played as the Drengin. Put my research 100% and full spend rate. Built a few labs. Got invasion on March 22, 2225. That's about 11 weeks total.

Took the Drengin 30 in your game. I'd say the AI not only wasn't cheating but could have done much better.

Let the drengin get planetary invasion in 10 weeks for all I care. It will make me a nice profit.

When I am playing them it takes me about 10 -25 weeks to get to Planetary invasion, depending on the map. but in the beta trying to run invasion fleets to pick off some worlds on the edge is borderline suicidal, since you need to husband your early pop so it will grow.

Alrigh then i have to admit i got owned, but really in my opinion planetary invasion should be alittble bit harder to get. Thanks all for the tips and cyber next time please try not to be a lets see how im gonna treat this guy person, forums are made for helping people out

Most techs are relatively easy to get if you dedicate yourself to getting it. However, in doing so you sacrifice your progress other areas of research and colony development. It's a tradeoff.

AI is not cheating... U just suck. j/k... I get owned myself.. Think i overated my skills, had to dumb down the AI alot more and played at normal. I'm doing pretty good, might need to go one level up. Try to start at a lower level and move up gradually

I apologize EspoDude. What I really need to start doing is count to ten or something when I read a post like your original. Just really irks me when someone starts complaining about an aspect of the game that has been discussed probably hundreds of times and been shown to not occur.

You can get planetary invasion within 15 weeks from week 1 with drengin.

build 2 research factories - move research slider to 100% move spending to 100%

Possibly can be done even quicker if you start off on a planet with a 100 - 300% research bonus tile.
Or you could even get the 25% research reduction time bonus random event.

The AI doesnt cheat you just havent worked out how to optimize your sliders.

Sorry for saying that the computer is cheating, i know it was not, i was just pissed, sorry everyone. Peace