For the first 3+ months it was PvP-only. For the next month it was PvP or Co-Op, with a traditional AI that followed the same rules as the players.
Wait, what? Where can we get the PVP build of AI war?
You mean the PVP build with every ship type always available, without wormholes and with infinite planet sizes? It sounds awful!
It sounds like Gratuitous Space Battles actually, except with ships you can control.
Well, there were still the same number of planets in each galaxy, so it was infinite planet size per planet, with a default of I think like 200 planets. Without the galaxy map connections it was easier to fit more in the same space. And black holes and asteroid files on the galaxy map really mattered, because you couldn't warp to planets that they blocked line of sight from. So you had to go around those, which was kind of interesting. Like the Death Star approaching the moon of Endor. Now those galaxy map features are just visual flavor, somewhat sadly.
In terms of the builds with PvP, that's not really something I care to share around -- there's a reason we stopped doing that.
Same class of reasons we stopped doing the top-down view in AVWW. You don't really want to play a true alpha of even games you really like; by completed-game standards they are all "awful," but that's... why they aren't yet complete.