I have been playing for a while now and love the game and the genre. This is however, my first post here, so be nice No matter what is fixed/updated/suggested these things seem to stay true. I have seen these touched upon previously, but this is my take whether it supports/detracts from the previous statements. This is an overview with more below

Summary:
1) The AI is pretty good at the start of the game, but makes poor decisions as the game progresses and gets more complex
2) The AI is absolutely horrible at diplomacy in the overall scheme of things
3) The no trading AI techs is great, except you SHOULD be able to give as tribute or a gift or in negotions for peace. There is no reason techs shouldn't be used as bribes/payoffs!
4) The Alliance system needs looked at
5) There should be a political borders option at the least. No nation would accept another nations ships, tanks, planes just breezing through their territory going whereever they please. Even in science fiction, there were borders/neutral zones. This would stop the "rush" tactic humans use so well. Also it would keep the ai from having to think "is he going to jump me or just sentry, or just passing through" The ai has attacked me on occassion saying I was going to attack them, when I was REALLY going to attack another, bigger race. They just got themselves dusted and I didn't declare war at all. This ought to save a heck of a lot of thought by the AI too. With the borders option on, you cross, you are attacking.

Details:
1) The AI when confronted with a culture border problem (even with cultural/influence victory turned off) is short sited and will build embassies to the detriment of their manufacturing and economy. I was playing my first metaverse game and was blessed with an awesome starting position with powerful manufacturing bonuses and even one planet the had two manufactoring bonuses (one of 100%, one of 700% AND 300% resource AND 100% moral AND size 13
I played as the Terrans with a research bonus and since my borders were with the Arceans and Altarians, I was able to expand with little molestation. I got a great start militarily as it was easy to crank out ships, then switch to social and research when I was #1 or #2 miliarily. It was quickly realized that we were the three with the most likely ability to have a large empire, so I played nice with the Thalan, Iconian, Torian and Korx. I made an 5 way alliance by giving them stuff to hold of the Yor, Drengin, Arcean and Altarian, I then used some techs to get the agressors to back off, then got the lesser races to sign on the dotted line. Thus I hoped to block expansion of rivals since I COULDN'T exploit these monkeys in the middle as they were far away (huge map) and the Arcean and Altarian were between us and I didn't want to risk over extending.

The PROPER thing to do would be the Arcean and Altarian to make an alliance and the Yor, Drengin to made an alliance early. They could have beaten the stuffings out of those empires as I could only help them somewhat from afar. They didn't, but then COMPOUNDED their blunders by attacking one of the minors, drawing me in. My minor allies, wanting to kiss me would join in and I was able to smack them down hard. Next, the Altarians had the unfortunate random event of an assassination of their leader on one of my worlds and declared war, well, that got 5 enemies on them and ended any threat there. The Dregin were able to be held off by me giving techs to the Drath and Torians, so they couldn't expand. Then the Yor decided to attack the Korx and got themselves slapped down. In the meantime, techs all focused down the missile techs, so I used my advantage in research to counter missiles and crank up the laser tech tree. Now I have huge ships getting cranked out (remember, I manufacture) and research keeping me with the latest and greatest. Now my frigates and battleships can block almost ANYTHING they have and I have lasers now while there defenses are against missiles. Taking over the Altarian and Arcean worlds, the borders were STUFFED with embassies and barely ANY manufacture, much less research.

Observations:
1) While I understand the need to hold a border back with embassies, those worlds were NOT in a threat of being taken over by influence and the option was turned off for an influence victory, so it was senseless
2) By building so many embassies, they totally handicapped themselves economically and miliarily.
3) It was insane to attack a 5 race alliance that you had no hope of defeating
4) Having nations have to be close for an alliance is silly, Russia, UK and USA were NOT a tight trio. England was thinking of sending troops to Finland to FIGHT Russia in WWII. My thoughts on this are, evil leaders/nations make alliances when they do not like each other at all (Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia (Russia divided Poland with Germany)) in the hopes their expansion together will overcome the opposition. The "good" nations band when they have to. NATO was a coalition of the needy, to counter Russia and the Eastern Block. Notice the distance of the US and members of NATO growing. Sure Bush has some to do with it, but Europe has been pulling away, Bush just accelerated it. I propose evil nations be able to make an alliance even at neutral When an evil alliance is made, then the "good" nations can band at just friendly or maybe even neutral. Neutral nations can make alliances at friendly. There HAS to be a politcal weight to alliances, not just your closest bud. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
5) When faced with a race that is becoming supreme, ALL races should look at jumping in at any excuse to beat the #1 race down. The crabs in the bucket syndrome, the see one about to get out, they grab him and pull him back down!

Other observations.
1) The Terrans never do well in any game I play (Where all AI is intelligent, 12 + games) they don't negotiate, trade, build their military correctly and are quickly cannon fodder
2) The Dregin never do that well. They may start ok, but then over extend or get stupid and get whipped early (not by me either)
3) The Torian, Arcean and Altarian usually do well, epecially if they dont' start near me
4) The rest are cannon fodder, although I prefer the Yor and Iconians not to be near me at the start as their suicide wars get us all killed/crippled
5) I have yet to see a game where missiles ISN'T the weapon of choice. It is so overpowered at the beginning that all the AIs tend to go down it (heck me too) and then I exacerbate it by teching up and trading those lower missile techs to the lower races. I don't have a problem with missiles being more powerful than the others on a tech level basis, but let's face it, light travels faster than any rocket . Laser vs rockets should always fire first, no matter who has the advantage.

Thanks for putting up with my long winded speech, all opinions are appreciated and debate would be exceptionally wonderful!