lol, I rather actually fight something that shoots my ships back rather then just play the: kill them before they kill my planet game.
In that case, have you considered playing the game in online multiplayer against human opponents? The Sins AI is not bad as far as AI goes, but no matter how many economic cheats it's given, it will never be capable of strategic thought. Now is a great time to get started online, at least in vanilla Sins, because the $4 sale brought in a lot of new players and most of the heavily experienced pros are playing Diplomacy. Do note that contrary to popular belief, most online games only last 1:15-2:00 hours. (It's faster with Quickstart and especially if you are playing the Faster speed settings in Dipomacy.)
