Am i missing something here? I start a space battle against Hard AI and somehow the ai gets more credits, they research the tech faster and seem to be able to still build ships.
I play as galactic republic and ai as conferderation. The match starts i instantly click to upgrade the base. when mine is around 60-70% it says enemy base upgraded but they still send out a lot of ships? this goes the whole game. For example if i play on besbin and have 3 out of the 5 mining stations the ai still constantly builds ships and upgrades its base. I am not even near tier 5 and suddenly a tier 5 drone ship arrives or the super carrier.

Is there some setting or information i missed? Balancing of factions aside, for me it feels like the ai on hard is getting a lot more resources and tech research is faster.