i always play in medium size map with chanllenging (genius) difficulty.
i started a new game with 4 random AIs. By the time i had colonised 10 planets, Each of the AIs only had 2-3 planets.
i even managed to colonise a planet that its star was right next to an AI's home star.
Then i started a new game with the same settings, and this time the AIs had around the same number of planets as me at the same checkpoint of my previous game.
Question is, why is there a big difference in the AI's ability to colonise planets in different games? Has the FOW been reinstated for AIs in challenging difficulty?