Single player question/

[Saxon]

Space Empires 4 had the option to mod AI and there was a period where some rather strong AI designs came out, designed by players. Is this what you mean by scriptable AI?

I would say the AI is quite good by industry standards. They have strong openings, but the mid game and end game are progressively weaker. As another poster noted, they have strong battle planning, but their unit purchasing patterns are weak. They do not cheat like some other games, which is a pro and a con. I come down on the side of “it is a good thing” they don’t cheat, but it does make them weaker.