Free Colony Ship turn 20 every single game.

Yep. Came with the last DLC expansion. I think it is a means to help in the beginning.

Hmm, free stuff for no apparent reason, do not like that tbh (Cheesey as fk), and it defeats the object of nerfing starting population/growth in the first place.

Seems this is hardcoded too, GRR, or in some obscure xml location.

@Devs - Either remove this or give us the optin to edit it out ffs. Built in cheats do not go in your favour, and yes it a cheat, its free with no reason given (Not linked to Ability, Trait, Event, Improvement or Ideology), just appears out of thin air. #extremelyanoyed

Edit:

This now also raises the question if one thing can just appear out of nowhere, how many other's are there that the player does not see? So many reports of AI got this or AI got that, AI magicaly gain x. And you wonder why people slate the game for cheating?

^^ This is why its a bad idea just to give stuff for no reason. Now we know it happens, not good man, not good at all.

I have never received a colony ship on turn 20 out of nowhere.  When I get one it usually comes from an event, which you aren't having.  The other way is when I build Tyron's Destiny.  It gives a colony ship with a population of 5, but it is right next to the planet where it is built, and there is no notification that it happened.  It just appears.  Are you somehow managing to build it on your homeworld on turn 20 every game?

I can't think of any other normal explanation, and as I already mentioned, I have never had a colony ship appear for no reason and certainly not always on turn 20.

This doesn't mean there aren't strange things happening.  Several games I have had a habitable planet appear in my area of influence for no reason that involved me.  I've become convinced that one of the other races caused it to appear, but it appeared in my area instead of theirs.  What helps convince me is that I sometimes have an event that says something happened near a planet that provides another inhabited planet near it, but the new planet always appears in my home system.  Maybe another race is having a colony ship appear, but it appears next to your home planet instead.  This is stretching possibilities a little, but I'm seeing some evidence that strange things like objects appearing in the wrong place are happening.

That. How the hell did I miss that, #facepalm.

@Devs - Apologies.