Is that the developers say they "challenge the player without the AI cheating" (not a direct quote but close enough.

Like almost every other game of this type the Computer Races does not even play the same game as the player game.

Now people will say they are just playing by different rules or some such garbage... but what is your definition of cheating then? Its not playing by the same rules... DING DING DING!

Here are some examples of undocumented "different rules"

1) Ability to extort... the computer players have huge ability with this at very low tech, real players have almost none.
2) Ability to pump out 150 cost constructors every other turn with 1 planet at turn 15 for multiple turns without harming long term economy. My best guess at this "advantage" is that it is buying them at the mitrosoft rates without having to pay anything per turn afterwards.
3) Ability to see specials and send constructors to them without a visible ship scouting. You want me to send you save games I will on this one.
4) ability to change social projects and have production count towards the next project (IE if I went back to a save after race X develops a wonder, then buy that wonder out from under them they can magically pop out economic capital instead with no social production loss)
5) ability to send colony ships across the board on a large very early in game.
6) a ton more that are hard to pin down since they come up later in the game.

All this being said I want you to balance your game, pleas please please resend you boasts about the game not cheating, they are not helpful and will hinder your ability to successfully communicate with your player base.

Example:

Player A says "WHAH WHAH WHAH the computer cheats in XYZ way"
Developer B says "we only give the computer player QRS advantages"
Player A says "But they cheat… I can prove it"
Developer B says "you need to learn how to beat the game as it is"

Now no matter how relevant XYZ is wrt balancing Developer B will out of hand reject the whole idea since the word "cheat" was used... so now we have miscommunication and frustration for ZERO reason. Both the Player and the Developer are using the wrong language to get the issue looked at in any meaningfull way. This situation is created by Stardock!

This being said I don’t have any real issue with the game itself; I can handle all the cheats. But calling them something different is silly.

Swallow your pride and admit this game cheats as much if not more than MOO2 so ballancing issues can be just that... ballancing.. not a pissing match between people who say the game cheats and the people who love frogboy so much they would jump off a bridge to defend him from the evil people accusing this game of cheating.

Great Game BTW, makes MOO3 looks like a crackerjack toy (single player wise).