I was wondering if anyone who has played against the normal ai/hard ai has noticed this. I was playing Singleplayer last night, (mind you I'd rather play MP, but we get a we'rd game crash dump error, when our systems are 100% stable and up to date), and after colonizing an outer desert planet that was next to a wormhole and also a choke point, I started to build it up. Well, of course, I get no real attacks from the ai so I continue on my way upgrading tech and planets.

After I had a very sizeable force built up and good tech I went forward to blow some stuff up, this is where the problems come in. This was a 3 person FFA, 2 computers and me. I would go to the wormhole just to find the ai chilling in the wormhole doing nothing, then instantly deciding to target me. They didn't have an alliance or anything that I was aware of. Now mind you I was able to handle both their fleets so I started micro'in to attack and kill their capitol ships. I managed to kill 2 of about 7, but then they all retreat into the wormhole. I follow them and then the come back to the other wormhole. So then I have to follow and they end up destroying an astroid.

My problem comes down to this. The computer hopscotches like a bunch of punk ferrywinkles. Not just in wormholes, but also with phase jumps. I'll phase jump a fleet and the instant my phase jump starts, they are phase jumping a full fleet into the planet I'm leaving. I phase back, they retreat and don't fight, even though they have a force almost the same size as mine. The computer will never fight me if it has even 1 less ship then me. That does not seem like it desirable gameplay mechanic. It wouldn't be so bad if I weren't phase jumping back and forth the ENTIRE GAME.

In fact, the only time I kill his forces is if I phase ontop of him and kill his capitol ships before they can retreat. I've also noticed I can bait them by sending in weaker forces ahead and letting them think they can go rape the force, then phase jumping on top, but again, they instantly retreat, many times before a battle can even begin.

I then went to attack one AI player, well, of course the instant I phased to kill his planet, the other ai player, orange, would come and attack my now empty planet, I return, he runs. Wash, rinse, repeat. It is very frustrating. I would notice that sometimes the two ai would attack eachother, so they definitely had no alliances, but I never saw them attack each other's planets.

In closing, I absolutely HATE, DESPISE, LOATHE, the phase jump hopscotch you have to play with the computer. I realize now that if I want to beat the computer I have to have 3 fleets, 1 for attacking and 2 for defending when the computers decide to team up 90% of the time in an FFA.

Anyone else notice something like this? Have any useful or at least non-troll comments? I'll take constructive criticism. I realize I shoulda had 2 fleets and that woulda saved me a lot of headache, but damn the hopping around instantly crap.