I'd say every point you made is true. Preaching to the choir. I DO like how annoying the AI makes the SF though by sending them to the gravity well you jumped from.

And with Diplomacy, maybe the rushing and feeding that overwhelms the new players will disappear... hopefully.

If it does, then mulitplayer just may get a few more players

I was NOT trying to open a discussion about multiplayer. I was suggesting that if the devs simply fixed this issue, and of course the suicides on starbases and the random picks of capital ships, the AI would be much more competent. Meaning a significantly better SP experience. All I'm saying is I know the main issues with the AI right now.

I can't currently play multiplayer anyway. My PC is wireless only, being upstairs, and in my area, there is a TON of interference (I can see 30+ routers in range), meaning multiplayer is currently not an option.

These are exactly my feelings about the AI and siege frigates.  I often like playing quick 1v1's against the AI, but when it decides to build siege frigates that's just the end.  It prioritizes replacing those siege frigates above all other unit types, so eventually its fleet just becomes 100% siege frigate, at which point there's no military fleet left to stop me from crushing it.  Even unfair AI's die out because the only thing keeping them alive was the fact that they were pumping units out as quickly as I could kill them!  If those units become siege frigates, it's over.

That said, some AI behavior types don't build siege frigates... unfortunately I'm pretty sure all those behavior types like to rush into trade ports, which has the same effect.  Their flow of frigates suddenly comes to a standstill because they spent all their cash on a few trade ports that are woefully inefficient that early in the game.

Also, the easiest way to counter siege frigates is with scouts.  You need about 2 scouts (a mere 4 command points, 6 for Vasari) to counter each siege frigate the enemy sends.

I suspect that the AI may still inhabit game versions before 1.05...  AI improvements might consume too much development time without having enough advertising impact.  What the AI might need is an instruction that siege frigates are to be used when its own ships have the grav well, rather than when it spots an empty hostile grav well- if siege frigates are useful at all.

However there is a solution, have the players design the AI.  There are at least two successful styles for existing RTS games.  One is scripted, where the AI is rewritten using a simplified code.  This would require the developers to implement the necessary code, however.  The other is to have the variables used by the AI set in a text file, so that they can be experimented with by players.  This might not require as much development work..?  With the first the script creator could set conditions for the AI to build and utilise siege frigates based on its own situation.  With the second, the player adjusts the frequency of the decisions taken randomly by the AI, so the frequency of siege frigate builds could be restricted.  I'm not sure that the second type has been used for tactical AI though. 

With either method, the script creator would get to name the AI, if this could be put in game to replace the randomly chosen name it might add to the fun.     

While siege frigate production can be scripted to conditions or made less frequent by the variables method, the LRF spam problem is a flaw in the balance of the game.  LRF are too effective compared to LF- they should cost more supply (as a higher tech unit) so users need to up their supply early in the game, and be made dedicated LF killers, with a secondary role against turrets, being more heavily penalised against caps/cruisers (less effectiveness) and carriers (less speed).  As it is LRF have too many roles as LF killers/cap ship killers/turret killers, and are also useful against carriers and cruisers because of their longer range and the over-effective Repulsion.

Without a new balance scripts might just build a few LF early, variables might limit the frequency of LF when higher tech units are available.  Then the AI would also spam LRF.... this would just tune the AI to the existing balance issues though.

What either script or variable method can't achieve is to counter-spam units, they tend not to count their dead or 'see' the enemy.  The scripted method depends on terrain and the condition of the AI's own empire.  Adjusted variables just attempt to produce a proper balance of units, and between fleet, research and economic development.  The AI also needs to adjust its diplomacy to its strategy rather than the reverse, then you wouldn't get fleets moving completely across the system just to help an ally gain another planet.  This is simple to set up if the AI structure exists- it doesn't seem to currently, it might appear with the second expansion. 

Some of the most famous RTS games have the most easily adjustable AI.  If there was a host as observer-only option together with player-adjustable AI, we could have battles between competing AI.    

The devs have stated that they are "fixing" siege frigates, see reply #19 in this thread at the Strategy forum, just about at the same time you opened your thread.

I think there is still a bug in the game [Entrenchment] that will count mines as refineries.

As I said, it catches a newbie by surprise, but the thing is it will only fool you once.  After that, you'll always leave a guard and the siege frigates will warp in to find someone shooting at them.

This leads to the (very humourous) scenario where the siege frigates run away back to where they came from, only to find a battle going on there and decide to attack the planet again, so they just keep phasing back and forth until they die... then as soon as they do die the AI prioritizes them for immediate replacement.

They're watching.  Not always posting, but they're watching.

Ive never had an AI truely throw their fleets against a starbase of mine. most of the ships they send would be more of a task force size. five or six or less ships of varying ships.  But theyve never threw Caps and more important ships at me like that. Usually they turn those ships around or jump to another planet i hold while the small task force distracts my Starbases.............kindof smart of them except ive learned on the smaller maps to just put Cap's at mid lvl in various gravity wells between Starbases and essential planets.

Sadly the AI more often than not will just leave its cap to die in battle rather than running it away.  Really quite sad.