I am satisfied, how the AI handles it s armies. The fleets escorting them is way better than in the past, where the armies even died to single outposts.
The lack of supporting from the AI for it s Allies is an issue. It is definitely a weakpoint if the ally doesnt care, while his defense pact neighbour is overrun and just continues moving into enemy territory. Also the "allied fleets follow" button not working is a Problem, because it destroys the way for a Player to influence the AI fleets inside of a Fed to start a combined attack or defense. Sure - if the Player is not clever it might lead the AI fleets to get suicided, but usually the Player is more clever than the AI.
The Ai only caring for Claims and Systems the enemy claimed and occupied is defenitely a huge weakpoint of the Ai. If the enemy fleet occupys the starbase of the homeworld or certain planets, which have a Population over a defined amount, the AI defenitely should stop it s attacks and rush to Rescue the own planets. It really is not good if the AI successfully manages to conquer a small worthless border planet/System, but meanwhile it s economy and reinforcements are destroyed (Especially for an total war empire this means Game Over). Claims are fine, but they shouldnt be all that matters.
The endless System loop with main fleets flying back and forth between 2 Systems is defenitely currently a really big Problem. It is no fun, if half of the Empires in your Galaxy take 10 years of war, before they finally start Breaking free of the loop and attack. Often they only manage to break free after the enemy has already taken lots of Systems, despite their own fleet being stronger, or on par.
I really dont understand, why the AI bombardment stances were changed to only allow selective. It unnecessary slows down the AI in wars, while trying to conquer planets and gives the Player an unfair Advantage (which the playere really doesnt Need, the Player usually is smarter than the AI).
The AI of FE and AFE suffers from all that in a more obvious way. The reason for that is that the AFE usually fights bigger alliances / feds and heavily depends on it s core Systems. As total war empire their inability to rush to defend their core Systems, while being on a "successfull" conquest trip is the main reason, why they Always fail the war in heaven. The other reason is their Focus to priorize the other AFE over the alliance of nonaligned powers, they should Focus on the closest enemy empire and not send their fleets all over the Galaxy, making them unable to come back in time for a Rescue or hold any conquered territory. Also as soon the core planets starbases are occupied the AFE fleets rather bomb planets, waiting for an destroyed/non-existing army than doing anything useful, like getting those starbases back. There is a reason why most AFE die, while still having it s main fleet mostly intact.
