- Jul 15, 2003
- 82,854
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It can be found on Steam for a reasonable price.
Its not as good as Master of Orion or Galactic Civilizations, but I had some fun with it this evening. Need to sleep but I'll touch on some important points.
Finding your fleets and selecting ships is a hassle. However, both ship production and movement can be automated very easily. You can auto-transport colonists and troops, as well as make patrol routes for warships.
Planet management is easy and the interface is clean. Diplomacy is also simple. Both the star map and battle scenes are 2D but very well rendered and colorful. Battles are real time and there isnt much to do besides click on the enemy once and then watch. You can speed things up as well as auto-resolve.
Researching is also neat and simple. You can do multiple projects at once, but that slows to a crawl. Its better to focus.
They let you make bio-ships which are effective and low-maintenance, and that technology is available fairly early as well. Tons of weapons and stuff to research if you like, including a wide variety of bio weapons. Not all of them kill and make you look evil. Some just slow production or research or make the planet easier to invade.
Trade routes and mining are possible. Theres dust clouds to slow travel unless you have better technology, as well as two types of worm holes which can be utilized with the proper technology.
The races are fairly generic and not inspired. Humans of course are well rounded. Theres a super aggressive race that cant be negotiated with but has inferior population growth. Theres a little weenie race thats only good for researching, etc.
Bases can only be put immediately around a planet and it seems like only one at a time. However you can build floating missile platforms and lasers to your hearts content, but they all have upkeep.
Wide variety of ships and in most games you start off with several to get things up and running right away. Any individual planet can be auto-managed. It does not appear that theres unique or heroic governors. I also did not see any special goodies floating around in space.
Zooming and panning is easy, you can use WASD or arrow keys. HOME to find capital planet. I think PgUp and PgDN cycle them. Quicksaves, grids, custom modes, a good tutorial.
Not much else to say right now. I think it will occupy me, but not impress me.
Its not as good as Master of Orion or Galactic Civilizations, but I had some fun with it this evening. Need to sleep but I'll touch on some important points.
Finding your fleets and selecting ships is a hassle. However, both ship production and movement can be automated very easily. You can auto-transport colonists and troops, as well as make patrol routes for warships.
Planet management is easy and the interface is clean. Diplomacy is also simple. Both the star map and battle scenes are 2D but very well rendered and colorful. Battles are real time and there isnt much to do besides click on the enemy once and then watch. You can speed things up as well as auto-resolve.
Researching is also neat and simple. You can do multiple projects at once, but that slows to a crawl. Its better to focus.
They let you make bio-ships which are effective and low-maintenance, and that technology is available fairly early as well. Tons of weapons and stuff to research if you like, including a wide variety of bio weapons. Not all of them kill and make you look evil. Some just slow production or research or make the planet easier to invade.
Trade routes and mining are possible. Theres dust clouds to slow travel unless you have better technology, as well as two types of worm holes which can be utilized with the proper technology.
The races are fairly generic and not inspired. Humans of course are well rounded. Theres a super aggressive race that cant be negotiated with but has inferior population growth. Theres a little weenie race thats only good for researching, etc.
Bases can only be put immediately around a planet and it seems like only one at a time. However you can build floating missile platforms and lasers to your hearts content, but they all have upkeep.
Wide variety of ships and in most games you start off with several to get things up and running right away. Any individual planet can be auto-managed. It does not appear that theres unique or heroic governors. I also did not see any special goodies floating around in space.
Zooming and panning is easy, you can use WASD or arrow keys. HOME to find capital planet. I think PgUp and PgDN cycle them. Quicksaves, grids, custom modes, a good tutorial.
Not much else to say right now. I think it will occupy me, but not impress me.
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