What I'm wondering if got changed was it seemed there just wasn't much of an enemy to fight. There would be some off the top but then really just nothing formidable at all. They never tried to take over any of my planets that were exposed to them etc.

So far, coming back once you start bombing the homeworld is the only major difference I've seen consistently. Before the patch, the AI would generally just run with its fleet, even when you were taking down its homeworld, until it had nowhere left to go.

Ultimately, it still seems to run for the hills whenever I get anywhere near it so, no. I don't think it's changed much in terms of being more challenging.

Wouldn't this help explain why he runs instead of throwing his ships to imminent doom without being able to inflict any significant damage?

The AI retreat logic *is* based on a relative strength comparison of his fleet vs yours, as well of the strategic value of the battle location (this is a little more ambiguous and I don't have hard numbers, but for example he'll be more prone to running earlier from attacking a hostile planet, than defending his own). The current threshold for the strength comparison is 75% - so if your fleet is 75% "stronger" than his, and assuming the other stuff isn't a major factor, that's when he'll start running.

The weeble-wobbliness that people describe is the "other stuff" that's taken into account in addition to relative fleet strength.

There's nothing mystical and "I guess" about it, just pretty hard numbers It runs from steamrollers, stays and fights on fairer grounds - wouldn't you do the same?

I've had some awesome evenly-matched fights that I didn't always win, but the AI pretty much always stuck it out to the bitter end if he was losing.

Yesterday, le dimanche de Pâques, I was playing TEC against 3 non-allied "hard" comps. A hard/aggressive A.I.'s Vasari homeworld was only 2 jumps away from mine.

Early on, I took the asteroid located (to the "west"), between his homeworld and mine, and positioned a Kol battleship with a few frigates, building-up the asteroid's defenses with a repair building + hangars.

The "hard" & "aggressive" A.I. never tried to assault this open backdoor to his homeworld : « he » only scouted the position once and awhile.

He did not even try to sneak-attack my homeworld by its other lane (also separated from him by an asteroid, to my "north") ! I had no fleet at my capital, but a lot of hangars.

Instead, while I was piling-up ships at the western asteroid, near his open backdoor, he sent his main fleet to the other (northern) asteroid, skirmishing against the two other comps for the control of that central asteroid (which had a lot of connecting lanes).

Eventually, my main fleet assaulted his vasari HW, which was totally empty of any defensive structure & defense fleet !

With 3 Kol battleships in the lead, I first destroyed all his structures, including his two shipbuilding facilities.

When the Kols started to bombard the HW planet itself, his main fleet did come back to defend. I retreated to my asteroid, to minimize losses.

I eventually came back with 6 Kols and finished the job : that time, his main fleet had gone to « defend » his new (much weaker) capital, far away from my HW.

I colonized his starting position, which became a very rich colony, and which gave me a second door to the crucial central asteroid (where a lot of A.I. skirmishing had occured).

The "hard" comps seemed to have a great time fighting against each other in the centre. NONE of them ever tried to assault my HW when they saw the huge amount of hangars I had there. They allowed me all the time required to build a fleet of 6 Kols, escorted by 24 LRMs.

Never felt any pressure from those "hard" comps, even though I had a bad starting location and could only colonize ONE asteroid for a long time.

And believe me : I play like a sophomore noobette.   

But I'm not a masochist : I refuse to add teams of allied comps just to augment the pressure.

The 1.03 enhanced "hard" A.I. should be a quality A.I. that does not require quantity to compensate.

I have found the AI very random in 1.3. A few games, it runs constantly, a few others, it stayed and fought, but it rarely seemed to matter what the odds were.

My guess is, the AI only takes into account your fleet vs his fleet; not the value of the planet it is defending/attacking; not the defences around the planet; not the number of planets it has left; not the possible reinforcements it may have near; I even wonder if it takes into account "counters".

I also think it has a built in "human handicap", in that I mean the AI knows a human with an equal fleet will beat it via micro and other human stratagies an AI can never understand, so if it's not REALLY got the advantage, it seems to say "I can't win this one battle, against this one fleet, in this one place, so retreat".