difficulty level question

[b_ace]

What do the higher difficulty levels effect (AI gets research bonus, stronger ships, etc)?

[ByTheNumbers]

When setting up a custom game, when you click on the difficulty slider, it'll tell you on the top of the window what it effects. I can't remember off the top of my head of all it does, so that's why I mention it. I know setting up a decent economy in very hard difficulty has always been a PITA for me, personally.