So I am playing Vasari on a medium map on easy...it's my second game and I am still getting a handle on things, but I obliterated the AI on a smaller map. There's me and two other Vasari races and one TEC. I own about 1/3 of the planets and roids on the map, whereas the AI all share about 2/3rd. I'm not massively ahead economically nor in research, but I figure I'm at least one step ahead of the AI empires. I'm at the middle (5th) tier in fleet support and capital ships, and have about 2/3 of all ship types researched. I have two systems which are bottlenecks into my space, both of which have more missle launchers then I can count and two hangers each. I also have my main battle fleet sitting on a planet one jump from either system. I figured I'd sit back a little and research advanced weaponry, then lurch forward at one of the three....
until now, that is. You see, at about the same time, three fleets - one from each empire - jumped into my systems more or less simultaneously. EACH of their fleets was more sizable than my own, even though their individual economies could NOT have been that much higher. I doubt their research is either.
So how can the AI pull this off? I'm holding on to as big a fleet as I can afford at the moment, and I LEAD in planets. I'm no newbie to 4x games, so I'm not a complete idiot in how to play...but this flabbergasted me. How can they maintain that kind of force strength when I have the strongest economy and I can not? Now, IF my technological lead was apparant in some way (say, I'm outnumbered but can do more dmagae and take more damage per ship, ala Soviets vs. Nato) I could accept that they sacrificed technology to numbers...but that doesn't show through. Needless to say, I lost that game badly.
I would also add that diplomacy needs serious tweaking. I'm basically everyone's bitch, and the requests come so frequently there is no way to maintain a good relationship. I much prefered GalCiv I and II in this respect.
Loving this game, but what I saw happen today makes me want to put it aside for a while.