Yeah, like OP I've spent a good while away from Stellaris, in my case deeply absorbed in Total War: Warhammer 2, and the AI's cheats in that are focused around costs and avoiding penalties rather than outputs.
On its highest difficulty the AI pays 20% for buildings, 50% for units, extra recruit slots, and has -20% upkeep. It also doesn't take the +15% per army upkeep for all armies the player does. The AI in that game cheats hardcore.
I'm pretty sure back in ancient times Stellaris used to have the AI pay less ship upkeep. Possibly like 50% less. but I'm talking back in like 1.2 or so.
Sprawl is changing soon anyway so we'll have to see how that works out, but giving the AI a pass on limits the player has to work to is generally a pretty good way of making it competitive. (Stability would be another one, late game the AI is always losing worlds to rebellions and it tends to be a vicious cycle that it can never break out of).
On its highest difficulty the AI pays 20% for buildings, 50% for units, extra recruit slots, and has -20% upkeep. It also doesn't take the +15% per army upkeep for all armies the player does. The AI in that game cheats hardcore.
I'm pretty sure back in ancient times Stellaris used to have the AI pay less ship upkeep. Possibly like 50% less. but I'm talking back in like 1.2 or so.
Sprawl is changing soon anyway so we'll have to see how that works out, but giving the AI a pass on limits the player has to work to is generally a pretty good way of making it competitive. (Stability would be another one, late game the AI is always losing worlds to rebellions and it tends to be a vicious cycle that it can never break out of).
