You could include AI players in your team, so while they are not stupid, they are well-employed. Nearby the enemy should be close to your ally and not close to you.

Same, I'm just trying to learn the game. I keep getting stuck paying the Kusha, I get to a point where I am unable to build anything more advanced than a scout and there are no research options available.

Yeah, something seems off...playing against Berserker Vaygr's on "Easiest" resourcing. They don't seem to be affected by the utility cap, by my count having 34 harvesters + 22 patchers. Perhaps all this production is what lets it Rank up first, despite me killing every wave with no losses. And post-game I see it gathered 4x my resources?!? I focused entirely on economy, 2x scavengers with fusion and harvest control. We were working off the same number of mineral fields, and despite their higher number of harvesters they had much further to travel.

I've tried 4 times now. 3 times I got overwhelmed and out-produced. 1 time I managed to push them back and attack their production, but the patcher spam ended up out healing any damage I could put out.

EDIT: So after figuring out how to extract and edit files to remove all RU injection...this was more on me making stupid assumptions. While it made some difference, the main one was the Vaygr. Their economy is ridiculous! 2.2 starting extraction rate vs 1.3 on Hiigaran. I like asymetrical factions, but maybe cheaper ships would make more sense than gathering +50% resources, since that leads to some crazy snowballing.

Anyway, making my opponent something other than Vaygr was a night and day difference and I don't feel like such a dunce anymore.