And I would like to know if it has made a big difference that the AI now has to spend half of its income on ships. That seems like it could have a large impact.

2 starting factories mean earlier tension due to the increased number of ships built, AI is said to collect resources for bigger projects like titans, not always drain resources to zero..

I think yes.. From the several games I played with the 1.5 it seems to be the actual position.

Looks like your AI's got bad die rolls (lousy planet bonus's or dead worlds) or something. I played against 3 normal AI's on the Systems of War map. I turtled it out in my own system just to see if the AI would even attack me, and attack they did! At first it was the usual steady trickle of suicide units vs. my fleet, and 5 starbases sitting in the sun, and leveling my titan, and caps. In the late game the 3 AI's allied up against me, because they weren't shooting at each other any more. It was kind of a shock to see 3 titans, and 3 fleets as huge as mine at my doorstep. So far i am holding the line. I am still playing that game. May post an autorecord of it.

The AI was changed to better spend its resources. So they wouldn't stall their economy trying to tech up, and build a titan. For me the early game is pretty much the same, but its late game where the AI becomes more aggressive.

Try playing on Unfair.. You will get your ass handed to you.. If they ally and get the pacts even your upgraded ships will die in no moment, not speaking about even a fully upgraded orkulus going down  just from some (not more than 15) crazy damage heavy cruisers (they had 50+ damage per sec each..) and a titan supported by some carriers having not more than 10 bomber squads.. And if you attack, your heavies will get crushed in no moment, and your carriers will be destroyed too (his starbases focused on them and i could hardly evade his attacks by moving carriers around..), his starbase can attack like 350 per sec.. and this is only the pulse gun, the others were 150 and 200(disintegrator and phase missiles).. even my titan was badly wounded..

EDIT: and when your ally constantly loses capital ships and level10 Eradicas.... barely survives till you kill the other opponent.. VL unfair is crazy..

Hardcoded.

All i know is that any AI above hard is a cheating AI. I usually play hard because it is the highest non cheating AI. I dont like to see novalith's being built 5 minutes into a game, or level 10 titans 10 minutes into it.

It may have changed. ill look into it. Hard AI is now getting things way faster than it should.

Previous to 1.50, all AI above Easy got a resource bonus.  As of 1.50, only Hard and higher get a resource bonus.  The AI is more challenging now for two main reasons:  1) All players now start with 2 frigate factories; and 2) the AI can now properly save up for expensive items (i.e., titans) without just sitting there and doing nothing while it does so.  All AI players will also devote at least 50% of their income to ships, but it's really the two items above that made the key difference.

Cruel and Vicious get substantially more resource bonuses than the other levels, plus get instant research. Despite this, there's actually a fair number of players who are still able to beat it (don't ask me how).

That still does not solve your immediately problem of surviving the beginning of the game, especially on smaller maps.

All joking aside, I am quite happy with the AI overhaul. In fact, I recently noticed quite a few cases of downright Artificial Brilliance

in my games.   

• For starters, the AI now seems to take your invasion fleets a lot more serious. While before it often just sent a few ship here and there, you now usually will face its main fleet
• It also seems to make more use of defensive structures, especially Starbases, which it does rebuild rather quickly when destroyed. Grinding the AI down has become significant more difficult because of this.
• If in danger it does sent its Titan into quite elaborate evasion schemes:
  
  6 Player FFA, 5 Hard AI, one human. Multi Star Map with everyone starting in his own star system.
  
  Planet
  Phase Lane
  
  Star----------------Planet A ----------------Planet B ----------------Planet C----------------Star----------------Planet A
  
  I approached Planet A from the star and crushed the Vasari Loyalist Resistance on Planet A. I bombed it into oblivion but was unable to colonize due to strong enemy culture. When I was about to leave for the next Planet B the Vasari main fleet arrived. After a costly battle victory seemed certain, as only the level 4 Vorastra Titan remained. It took heavy damage and withdraw when it reached below 1000 hitpoints. It jumped right to Planet B. I followed suit, having the clear intension to finish it off.
  
  When my fleet arrived at Planet B, I only caught a glimpse of the Vorastra.... it was charging up for a jump back to Planet A. My ships turned arround and phase jumped to Planet A again.... only to see the Vorastra phase jumping to Planet B again.
  
  I told myself that two people can play this game, and so I divided my fleet. The capitalships stayed at planet A while my level 5 Ankylon jumped to Planet B again. I expected to see the Vorastra preparing to phase jump to Planet A again.... and phase jumping he was... but to planet C.
  
  Annoyed I send my Anklyon right behind it while telling the rest of my fleet to approach from the other side via the star route.
  
  When my Ankylon arrived at Planet C it immediately came under heavy fire from an fully upgraded Orkulus Starbase supported by Phase missile turrets (with the OP 5 minutes Disruptor Nanites) and hangar defenses.
  
  Knowing the the Anklyon can take enourmous amounts of punsishment I moved in to engage he Titan anway. When I got into range in miro phase jumped and evaded it again, now en route to Planet B again. I moved in pursuit but now the Orky and the 5 minutes passive Regenaration disable did take its toll, the Anklyon was in bad shape when he arrived at Planet B, while the Vorastra had been regenerating for several minutes now. That there was another Orky at Planet B did not help matters.
  
  At this time I decided to crush the Vasari.... I called my entire fleet to planet A to repair the Anklyon in preparation.... but that sneaky AI in the meantime had rebuild its maxed out Orky there and reclaimed the planet, adding PJI, too.
  
  With the Ankylon being litte more than a wreck and the rest of my decimated fleet being no match for an Orkulus and a Vorastra I withdraw under loud cursing. Thanks to the PJI one of my level 6 Akkans didnt make it back home.
  
  
  
  
  
• The TEC Loyalist AI seems to benefit the most from the AI improvement. Before 1.5, no matter if you gave it "Aggressor" or Fortifier and even at an additional level of difficulty it usually died against the other AIs.
  
  Not anymore.
  
  The hard TEC Loyalist AI with "Fortifier" managed to wipe, yes to WIPE OUT the Vasari that caused my initial fleet so much trouble. I have never seen any TEC wiping out a Vasari in an FFA AI game without having 2 times the ships, which in this case, he did not have.

My compliments to the AI developer for a job well done! 

Sounds like you just got unlucky, though I did get paired with a moronic Vasari AI who didn't know where to send its fleets for crap, it did build starbases, even on normal

Hm, perhaps there is a problem then.