Ascension victory test?

I created a map with 1 ascension crystal in the middle, knowing where it was I built a starbase on it before anyone else could. It was in terran territory and the only other civilization was alterian whom both never went to war with and eventually won on ascension victory. I was neutral alignment. Given these facts, could this be a bug or am i missing something? Does the AI prevent me to win by ascension? Does the difficulty level have anything to do with it?

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As far as I can tell, the instant you build an ascension starbase, you take a huge penalty in relations with everyone. And since the AI loses if you win, they should eventually go to war to try and stop you.

However, the AI doesn't seem very aggressive in ToA most of the time, and they'll probably only declare war when they think they can take you on - which indeed could have something to do with difficulty. Did you have a much stronger military than the AI? Lots more planets? Did the AI even build armed ships at all? (Terrans and Altarians are really slow to research weapons techs on Tough at least, in my experience).

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Ok so basically, the AI is not suicidal and wont attack me if it has a weaker military regardless of how many ascension crystals or how close i am to ascend? In that game, I had a strong military 90% of the game and through out I had a close relationship with both. Only in the end game, the AI (altarian) surpassed me slightly militarily, but they were allied with the Terrans and if both ganged up on me, they would of surely beat me militarily. But again, I captured the crystal early on and the terrans seem to focus on colonizing and influence instead of military, and I had the starbase in their territory !! For a thousand turns, the AI never realized I could ascend especially when I turned influence, alliance and technology victory off.

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