"Ancients are coming!" :-)
This will be awesome CDB! :-) You really have stepped things up again. :-)
It's been a work in progress for about 2 months but it's pretty much already done. The code to upgrade its cruiser, planets, and ports is done as well as the code to have it resupply everything if it gets destroyed or lost. Right now I have it set to target only my ports so I can get a feel for what it will do when it is unleashed. Since I went to bed I've lost another 11 ports to them so I may have to tweak it a bit.
When it attacks a planet or port it will apply all buffs and bonuses both accounts receive and it will only send as many drones as the target has stationed there. The issue with this is any player of a lower level will lose every time and I want it to give players a chance, will need to go in and tweak that as well.
When you say that it will only send as many drones as the target has stationed at a planet or port, do you mean that as a maximum? Meaning the attacks could be with less drones than what the player has stationed right?
Also - if the player and Ancients are at the same BC lvl in every way and the number of drones is the same also, then what would the outcome be?
A challenge from an AI is one thing, possible obliteration is another.

hehehe
It's set to a static number for the drones sent, like if a player has 50 million drones in a port and the AI has 50m drones then it will attack using that amount. If the AI attacks a player of equal size the player will win the fight but their troops will be defeated. They will retain ownership of the port but it will be open for attacks by the AI again or players.
An option I have would be to set it to use a slimmed version of the targets ship buffs instead of its own when it attacks and just use its own buffs for defense. Have some options I can run through before it starts targeting players on the 10th, it can always be tweaked after it starts as well.