AI Difficulty

This article is a stub which should be expanded.

The AI in Sins has six difficulty levels, Easy, Normal, Hard, Harder, Cruel, and Vicious. The normal AI is equivalent to a normal player, with no extra bonuses or penalties. The easy AI has handicaps to make it weaker, while all AIs above normal get some form of extra assistance to income and other miscellaneous advantages. These bonuses however do not make the AI ships directly stronger than an identical human players ships.

The exact values that influence the AI difficulty can not be directly seen in the game files, so much of the information in this article are only estimates unless otherwise noted.

Income

The Easy AI gets a lower income than an equivalent human player, while hard and above AIs get extra income. As of the latest version of Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion, the normal AI gets no bonuses or penalties to income.

The bonus income at each level is estimated to be as follows, but confirmation is needed.

AI Level	Income Bonus Multiplier
Easy	0.75
Normal	1.0
Hard	2.0
Unfair	3.0
Cruel	5.0
Vicious	7.0

Extra Trainable Capitalship Levels

Per Fyst/Blair Fraser, AIs on hard and above can purchase extra capitalship levels above what human players can achieve. The bonus is listed below.

AI Level	Capitalship Purchase Bonus
Easy	0
Normal	0
Hard	1
Harder	2
Cruel	3
Vicious	3

Free Research

The harder AIs receive free instant technologies throughout the game. The exactly algorithm of how many and which techs they receive is not currently known.