I was playing in a gigantic universe with nine AIs. I was 2nd or 3rd with no military to speak of, but a huge industry. The Drath, a race who I'd only established contact with through one of their ships entering my space (I never saw it, so it was likely coming in through a wormhole) decided to declare war on me. They were about 8th overall. I was evil.
WTF??!!
Firstly, while their military may be stronger, my industry was far more powerful. The only way a military nation defeats an industry nation (assuming equal techs... and my research was strong too) is through a quick, aggressive strike, rather like the militaristic Japanese tried to beat the industrious Americans with in WWII. The thing is, there wasn't a Drath ship for miles... in fact I never saw one for the duration of the war. If the Drath weren't poised to attack, WTF was the point?
The AI should never declare war until its fleets are ready to strike. An Evil AI should never declare war in advance at all, it should simply attack and let that declare its state of war. Why do they declare? I can't declare, I have to attack to get a war. It's like the AI is intentionally crippled by forcing them to give a notification I don't have to give.
Best of all were when the Iconians (another race not anywhere near my space, yet who had for some reason been threatening me earlier) started giving me ships to help. It would have taken those ships months to reach my space and was possibly the most useless gift ever. I just traded them away to tip the scales in other deals, like alliances.
Finally, gettng fed up of people sending me ships, I contacted the Drath who told me "the war was a bit of a mistake on our part, wasn't it?" (strange, since there hasn't been a single battle, and no one has declared war on them) and then agreed to peace.
As the game proceeded I struck up alliance deals with nearby races and then, now in 10th place, the Drath declared war on me again! I still had yet to see a Drath ship. Of course, all my allies declared war on the Drath (WTF, don't they check the treaties screen??) and then, hilariously, they surrended to the Torians the next turn after cursing ME for defeating them!!! I never so much as fired a shot or made an aggressive demand, yet drove them to surrender! LOL!
To sum up:
* Good and Neutral AIs should declare war only when ready to attack.
* Evil AIs should never declare war, they should simply attack (which changes the status to war)
* I should be able to declare war.
* Failing to declare war before attack should lean you towards evil (and anyone who used Xeno Ethics to be Good or Neutral should be forced to declare at least a turn before attacking).
* AI should check for alliance treaties before attacking.
* Industry and Research should be factored into my strength. I may have no military, but if I have a ton of starports, lots of industry and healthy research, I'll be pumping out ships in no time, so you'd better be poised to take half my planets inside of a month. I never keep a standing military, yet have never lost a war.
* If you're not within SHIPS SPEED * X parsecs of my space, or my enemies space, don't give me ships!