Yeah, normal is significantly harder than easy. I'm sure they'll get that balanced out before release.

Kudos to the devs for making a non-cheating AI that is tough to beat!

you need to increase your fleet size.. having your factories queued helps a lot..actually makes a difference..because when i started..i had a hard time..and i looked at my fleet capacity.it would be like 50 since i was manually building ships..now they pump out auto ..the ones i want..also build more frigate factories like on front lines..don't rely on 1-2.. the ai knows where to hit you..because they do scout..have ships to increase range.because if its an open view map..where you can see the enemy progressing..ai knows this also..and it will probably see your large build up..and try to hit you at a weak point which is anywhere else really..then it gets frustrating because it gets hectic...also try to expand multiple directions..not just one way..mm also dont always rely on brutes and archers t1 units..build t2 going to midgame..and dont forget quantum relays once you have radioactive..by building auto and pinging where you want it to amass ..you will reach 100 fleet cap..and wont be able to produce anymore until you upgrade logistics.

I'm pretty sure the normal AI does not cheat. It does above normal, giving the AI an eco boost. If you are losing to the normal AI you should find that impressive.

In no way is normal too hard to beat but I agree it might be too big a jump from easy. I am not sure why someone is saying the player is handicapped after normal difficulty. There is no way the Devs would do that. Handicapped would mean things like making our units slower than the AIs, reducing the HP or damage of our units compared to the AIs. I am sure this does not happen. If you are seeing higher values on the AI units it just means they have invested in more unit upgrades than you have.

Interesting. I just played again and obliterated the enemy (I choose "To the Death"). I used the same exact strategy I did on easy mode and wiped the enemy out. Oddly enough the first few times I tried that I got my butt whipped. Though I did discover something, after I get some massive forces it is a good idea to turn off "repeat build cue" for all factories (except for the dreadnoughts) and focus on building the supporting units for the dreadnoughts. 

This time I was able to keep the enemy from building more than one dreadnought as I was able to quickly control most of the map. That one dreadnought (and it's supporting force) died easily enough when it met with my dreadnought killer sitting near a repair bay, with a medic and some other defenses.....

I was able to sometimes beat 3 AI all set to challenging on previous builds.  It actually seems harder since the last update though and now I can only beat them on normal so far.  There is a small map made for 4 players and I was able to defeat two opponents militarily and just about the 3rd when I won through the turinium victory points with all AI set to normal on this latest build.  There seem to be two important factors, one is whether or not the AI go after each other enough.  If they expend a lot of forces fighting each other you can usually capitalize on it.  The other thing is to go after and defend the radioactives.  Controlling that resource tends to be the make or break factor in beating multiple AI opponents from what I have seen.  I actually make a point of avoiding the reactors and let the AI duke it out over them.  If an AI is dominating though and gets more than half way to the turinium victory points then I will go after them.  While the AI is fighting each other over reactors I go for other strategic points (besides just the radioactives) and build up T3's and quantum relays so that I can increase logisitics and health and weapons strength.

I find this thread unusual, because I just purchased the Early Access from steam and played the map "Knife Fight" on Beginner, which was extremely easy so I played on Normal which had no difference and then jumped to the hardest difficulty "Insane" and it was easy as hell too. I may have stumbled upon a bug with this map or something because none of the modes were challenging at all. I will play some other maps to test this because I think it's an AI issue on this specific map.

Can anyone else test these difficulty modes on "Knife Fight"(2player map) and see if they notice the same level of ease?

Thanks eviator, let us know the outcome! When I played all the difficulties, it seemed like the AI was barely doing anything each time.

@admiralWillyWilber

This is about Ashes of the Singularity, not Galactic Civilizations III. Please pay attention in what threads you are posting.

Sorry wrong post. I wish their were different catagories. I will try to pay attention.

Well if the AI is not cheating in normal I would really like to know how you get a Hyperion with over 40K health with AI on normal in v.63 on my side.

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/397801945112401419/E19EFF267748E0197D4D39BC20A40A32478EBC8D/

Quoting iplay291,

reply 22

@eviator

Tried is this morning on insane again and it was wayyy more challenging. Must have been a weird bug, which should still be noted I think!

Going to try and beat it on insane

Thanks for the help with figuring out what was going on!

Ok, if your so good at beating the enemy on normal mode, then what is your strategy? I did it once on one map (Knife fight) but am unable to replicate the scenario on any other map (Deneb in particular). No matter what I do or how fast I build the enemy overwhelms me with forces every time. If I am able to hold on long enough they send a super dreadnought at me and I start to get wiped out. I usually quit when I know I am going to loose because there is no sense in wasting the time to keep playing.