Some of the most fun I ever had, which I am sure you will all say is heresy, with AI was in SFC3 in these fleet action missions that had 12 ships in it, 3 per side, 4 different sides. That's alot of ships to shoot at. Long missions, yes, but also pretty enjoyable. Also I'll put in a plug for AI control in missions. EEK missions are great for that. You can usual corral the AI for one good pass. I say this not as a criticism of existing missions, but only to say that AI is not all bad if you are talking about getting actual fleets going. In fact, they are required.