Too easy or too hard? It depends on if teams are locked.

Which is the default option, and what is actually the difference between 'locked' and 'unlocked' teams?

I've played a few times (at default option) against 9 hard AI opponents on a huge map, and they've always been attacking me in preference, although they will on occasion fight each other also. I gets tough towards the end, but the hardest point usually comes after I take about 30 or 40% of the galaxy. By this time the 6 or 7 remaining enemies usually gang up on me (except for maybe one or two that I have a peace treaty with), and it can be difficult to hold ground while attacking.

Bluh?

I've done fine against unlocked Hards, even on huge maps. They never team up against me.

Well, I dislike the diplomacy element so much (possibly the only thing I really dont like about this game) that I never play anything other than locked teams.

And yes the difficulty can change rapidly on unlocked teams if you dont play the diplomatic game well.

I would have to agree with the original post. Last night I tried running a game against 5 AI's and actually actively tried to get some allies. I was only able to get 1 ally. The other 4 AI's allied with each other and my 1 AI ally hooked up with my main enemy all while requesting that his structures be destroyed! I got several missions that were impossible once the AI's who had allied and weren't being attacked started colonizing planets out in front of my target. This led to my peace treaty eventually falling though. My would-be ally parked ships all around one of my planets to wait for the "go to war" timer to expire. I did get a cease fire to go back into effect, but a few minutes later my likability went from 60% all the way down to 0 without warning, everything was broken off, and I was being attacked on multiple fronts by all 5 AI players. I did have a bunch of high level Kol's and Dunov's, but managing a battle on 3 fronts where 2 AI's were attacking each location is impossible. In the past I've been able to use pirates to break up the AI's attention, but this time the AI was cooperatively bidding on just me.

The more AI players, the harder it is to combat them when they eventually all gang up on you. It really irks me to see my AI ally just peacefully floating by the enemies I'm supposed to be attacking, but then being on my doorstep the moment a cease fire might expire.

After a few games of not being able to complete impossible missions and gang-banging by comps I went to locked teams...much better.

I play MP now so its not really an issue anymore for me.

I think the game would be much more interesting, at least with Free For Alls, if the default stand towards all other players was War and the AI's didn't continue their perpetual vendetta against anything with a heartbeat.

All of the Free For Alls with unlocked teams I've tried (3, 4 and 5 player ones) have all gone along similar lines. I tend to end up tangling with the first AI who is close, and their annihilation is usually paramount since I need their territory. I don't mind being at war with this one, it's all well and good.

But then I'll encounter the second one, who's is already at war with me. If I'm lucky they'll start to throw a good number of missions my way, since I cannot initiate diplomacic transactions beyond proposing things the AI rejects because our relations are poor (and credits, metal and crystal appear to have no effect). With some luck and good missions I can keep that AI happy with me for a while, at least while I destroy the other one. But even then just not completing a couple missions tends to drive them to war with me, even when I'm much stronger than the AI.

Once it goes above 4 players though things just turn into a mess. I'll typically again target an AI, but the other two will give me different missions (often far away, attacking one another) that I inevitably fail. I never get to an alliance with either in the first place, but these failures apparently make them hate me even more, because all three usually come at me in force.

The higher the number of AI's the more confused the missions seem, but they all seem to end in one way, the AI players all attacking you.

Locked teams I've seen some usual behavior (like an AI jumping out of its system to attack me while it still had a couple of strong opponents in it's own system). They seem to still like me disproportionately, but it's pretty clear that they're not beatdowns either.

I really hope the diplomacy can be fixed or even expanded upon, right now it seems to be a moot point of the game.

The key to winning against multiple hard AI, on very large maps, seems to be strategic positioning of defensive positions. Find relatively good choke points, and hold the line there (full deployment of tactical structures). Don't try to push into an enemy territory if it will weaken the positioning of your defensive line. Always keep a decent fleet in reserve, to counter any attacks, but don't actively attack on more than one front at a time - leaving a bigger fleet for your offensive pushes.

By focussing soley on one enemy at a time, you will 'naturally' make alliances with any enemies currently at war with that faction. In particular, you should go out of your way to please the enemy you are holding the line against, if realistically possible.

Oh, and don't try to defend systems in a single starsystem which are either side of a wormhole (well one that leads out-of-system anyway) - that's just asking for trouble. Keep to one side or the other until you can either 'plug the leak' from the other side, or you have enough of a force to make a run for the entire star system.