I LOVE this game. It's been a long, long time since I've seen something both different and GOOD in a 4x space game. So many are rehashes or lame indie jobs that don't quite work. This game is different, and I actually found myself looking up and realizing it was 10pm and I'd forgotten about dinner--and everything else. Played out two games so far. There are many elements I don't have a full grasp of yet, but I'm getting there. Played mix of Hard/normal AI, will try all difficulty maxed next time. What makes it good: -Innovation is what shines the most. You haven't done all this before. -Card-play-type diplomacy interaction. This can be ignored, or played seriously as a sub-game. It's worth doing and fun. -Responsive AI. If you try to use a card to annex a system, they declare war on you, they won't just sit there. -Lots of planets and fleets are involved but with just the right level of automation to make it a non-headache to manage. The game beats virtually all 4x in this department, but the learning curve is real here. Play the tutorial. -tactical battles with you in control (Sins of Solar Empire fashion). These are real time, but not so fast you can't react. -Ship design. It's fun, and seems to be effective, but is a little hard to measure what it's doing. Problems: -Sometimes an AI would sit in it's home system and do nothing. -I've experienced 1 crash so far, while loading. Suggestions for players: -Don't build a lot of random buildings. They will suck up your budget. You don't need very many. -Go fleets instead of too many outposts and colonize often. You'll expand faster that way. -Build up a level 4 or 5 planet as soon as you can, but don't grab too many level 2-3 worlds you can't use yet. -Name systems and fleets with the diplo cards for big bonuses. -Spend energy etc. for easy research grabs. -Go into the key bindings and make the space bar the pause key so you can pause when a fight starts in a large empire.
