Maybe someone else can confirm this with me, but I have seen Intermediate, Hard, and Hardest perform at similar levels.
Once you get into the swing of things with the game, mostly having near constant production and following a build order somewhat, they are pushovers. Most of my AI games over the last 3 months have ended up with the AI going completely still in their base. No clue what that’s about.
This is a major issue in my opinion. The AI is either indomitable at all levels above easy for newer players or hardly even a challenge for veterans.
Meanwhile, 2 1/2 years in the past:
During early development the lead devs did interviews stating future plans for an AI that could beat any player, making allusions to Alphastar and the like. Hinting at an AI powered by a deep learning model
Fast forward a year and they gave us the other higher difficulty AI (after temporarily altering hardest to operate as absurd does now). AI which function in much the same way as previously existing AI but with a resource handicap.
Devs, we don’t need magic solutions. What people generally want is something that works. The AI, among many other things in this game, does not. At all.
The AI not having an incremental difficulty is the tippy tip of a tremendous iceberg. It’s something that’s turned away a ton of people I’ve introduced to the game.
I know tryhard ranked players are going to talk down to people about this… but so many people I know that play video games never want to do PvP. Not having solid PvE gameplay in an RTS is a death sentence.