I presume this is mostly accurate. http://galciv3.gamepedia.com/Difficulty_Settings
I've said this before. GC3 isn't Sim City and it is past time to make some ships once some AI's consider you to be ripe for conquest. I'll admit to playing my OP custom race and using the very powerful motivation trait line from Malevolent but I don't feel like I am getting outshipped by the AI's at turn 50 even playing Godlike. This certainly wasn't an issue when I played Incredible. An AI race may have more ships than I but many of them are scouts, or constructor spam or CS but there's nothing left to colonize. Especially at Godlike, some AI's may have a higher military rating on the graph than I but not critically so and I can make a few decent ships and catch up and my ships are typically better equipped than the AI's. I will stress that it is important to blast away a few graveyards and get those free ships to help out early on and to keep a decent military rating. Don't sell those ships to the AI!!
I don't know what races people typically use nor what early tech paths they take and my style is likely more aggressive than most, but again I'll stress that one needs to have some ships prior to becoming ripe for conquest. If needing decent ships, don't hesitate to use some mining resources for prototype weapons.
