I am not slamming the AI for cheats on harder difficulties. Virtually all games to this and its accepted and I don’t want to start another flame post as to whether or not it should.
However the one that bugs me is the no FOW. (The $ too but to a lesser extent).
So to Frogboy and all you gamer pros : Would it not be better to give the AI buffs like tougher ships, pre researched techs, an extra starting home planet, higher starting population .. etc? Harder difficulty would = more advance tougher AI but in a way that’s giving it early access to things the player can eventually get also. Letting the AI see the world and roll in $ so it can just buy & colonize everything a turn 1 does not feel like the best choice here.
Of course AI should still (and does) get smarter at harder difficulties