In this specific instance it looks like the issue is being caused by the monthly energy deficit - the AI doesn't want to build anything that increases energy upkeep, and it's out of space for more generator districts. Possibly it'll work better when the patch fixing all the missing space deposits comes out tomorrow, and it has more energy & minerals to work with.
The build is really quite bad though and I think that's the problem. The AI took a size 23 world, with no Generator Planetary Features (At least none that we can see in the screen shot) that only has a max of 5 Energy Districts, colonized it and made it a Generator Planet. At 73 years into the game I find it hard to imagine the AI has zero tech for more advanced buildings at this point in the game and yet all it's built are two Luxury Houses and a Commercial Building.
I think you are both right and wrong.It is a fully expected outcome of the business model, so it can hardly come as a surprise for the development team and I am sure they didn't need players in the open beta to tell them the AI wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, and, in fact, more like a fork pretending to be a knife. The only question is how long time it'll take before the AI becomes anywhere near the challenge it was in 3.14... Days, weeks, months... years?
It took several years after the Megacorps/Le Guin overhaul - it was only once the current setup with custodian assignments was introduced, which gave a lot more time for AI work to improve the existing code base, that the game became as challenging as in 1.9. So I doubt it will be years this time, but only time will tell.
To support what Eladrin said:
On the plus side, they shouldn't need luck... they can attack the problem both in and from any direction, and they're sure to find bugs in a matter of seconds.
It's basically taking the basket-case planetary management the AI already had and putting it in a system that doesn't allow control in the specific way that just barely held the AI together before - it can't see a deficit of X and build specifically and exclusively X anymore.
Either 2 or 6 almost literally - they're probably going on long summer vacation in about a month and a half.
The save I initially reported has been lost. This is a new Observer game save that has been running for 68 years. I believe that the problem with the low strength of some AI fleets is because they do not produce alloys, even though other resources have exceeded the warehouse.
I think I have also found the reason for the low research ability of AI. The planetary limit for buildings with research bonuses and other buildings is 0, which will prevent the construction of new buildings?
The new Honeycomb Fallen Empire seems to cause the game to lag in the early stages, resulting in a running speed of only one second per day for the first 20 years of the game.
It looks like something is bugged with the tech which is why those AI fleets even on the Grand Admiral seem so small. Playing around with the console I discovered that giving myself even 100 repeatable tech doesn't increase the strength of fleets and stations. Armour, shields and hull go up but the 3 starting corvettes still have 300 strength.
