Why don't you update and find out for yourself? Seems counter-productive to ask for someone else's opinion on a matter in wich personal taste would seem to cloud any deduction?

the Monk

I'm not into multiplayer. I do admit that the phrasing of my question is a bit provocative. But I thought someone else might be able to weigh in on the claim that patch enhances the single player game. I can say that in my experience that the 1.02 patch which was supposed to offer a much improved AI difficulty seemingly did not.
With 1.02 I once again spent many hours leading up to another anticlimactic folding of the enemy without any intelligent strategy with many unexploited opportunities it had for colonization. Many people expressed the same experience I had. I'm not interested in doing that again if it hasn't changed. I understood it was not an easy fix if not impossible.

In a 'fair' fight (as in, a 1-1 fight without a half-dozen opponents trying to gangbeat you), no. It's not terribly challenging if you're a competent player who's trying to win. It's about as predictable as it ever was.

Improvements have been made but if you were trouncing it before, that's not likely to change.

AI will always be unimaginative. I suggest giving online multiplayer a try. Who knows, you might like it and make some friends.

Actually, from the 1.02 patch it has changed much, they have also added a new harder (cheating) difficulty.

I recommend you give it a go.

You might want to realize that, in the end, it is an AI. It cannot think like a human, weigh all of the possibilities like a human, execute creative strategies like a human, or really see the large scope of the galactic battle.

The AI is created to react to triggers and act upon certain situations (ie, the most common one, "If the enemy fleet is going to beat mine in combat, run away, unless it's the home planet").

Wanting an AI that can beat you if you are a skilled player is a bit much to ask. Could you imagine the number of scenarios that arise in a single game? How many times you decided to pull back, attack a certain planet, make a bold move, save your resources, etc? There is no way Stardock has the resources to create such an omnipotent, human-like AI that can make all of those decisions. I am very pleased with what they have done, as it still gives me quite a challenge sometimes. There aren't many games where the company can create a fair, difficult AI without allowing it to cheat. If you are good at this game then DUH, you won't lose to the computer.