Blue is AI. it has several worlds in scanning and hyperspace range, yet refuses to colonise them.
In the same game I abandoned a star 3 hours travel from a yellow AI star which had both ships and carriers present. Again the AI didn’t want it.24 hours later, still nothing.
Has the new abandoned star coding messed up the AI?
I ran a test game, just me and 2 AI. I just forced the Ticks, though I have seen there are issues with doing that. It took several Ticks for them to jump out to expand. When I would abandon a star to test it, with the AI already owning a carrier at the closest star, each time it took a different number of Ticks before it jumped for the abandoned star.
In the Team Game, the AI sits there like it is completely AFK, even after abandoning several stars to it. In a small dark game (with Ross in that game), it shuffles ships in a rotation. Something is definitely wrong with the AI.
AI will no longer attempt to take open stars after the first few days because it knows about human tricks.
LOL - AI is pretty smart! 
As someone who has certainly exploited that “weakness” of the AI, I love the cat-n-mouse/arms race between the players and the developer!
Dammit! I’ve only just learned that trick from Brian as well.
I would vote this feature out, but while writing it, I’ve reconsidered it. The AI isn’t now a problem as it was when the global trading was turned on in 64p games. Without this mechanic it was impossible to get AI worlds, but since they can’t trade universewide, it’s ok, I guess.
I haven’t tested yet, but will the AI claim worlds where humans have no hyperspace range and will hesitate to take worlds where humans can expand to? Moreover, the AI should strive to take empty worlds if it can arrive earlier than an enroute human ship. Just sitting there defeats the purpose of AI’s.
I will turn it back on when and AI can make better assessments about the value of the worlds it already holds and the threats to its borders. I don’t want an AI to take strength from a good star to capture a rock.
As a part of the last update I’ve added a special network just for the AI to make it easier (cheaper) to assess what its neighbours have around them.
Why can’t it just send a carrier of 1 over there? I mean, that’s what a lot of human players do.
Sadly, it seems more things about this game are being broken as of late than improved, in my opinion.
Yes, the AI needs significant improvements, but people fall for the tactic of a weakly held star with hidden reinforcements ready to jump in too.
The fact that it is doing different things (sitting in one game, shuffling in another) indicates there is something wrong with the current AI code.