Dastastic

Bugs/Crashes:

In a war with the Drengin, the Drengin made contact to sue for peace but there wasn’t any actual text in the dialog. And the responses I could choose didn’t make a lot of sense.

I had a battle where the enemy had Bombers and Cruisers and I had Fighters and Cruisers. All the ships targeted the enemy Bombers. I thought that Cruisers and larger were supposed to target large ships first.
I played with Normal Research Rate but I found this a shade too fast for my liking – I was not really connected to what I needed as they were coming up so often
I’m also feeling a disconnect after a siege finishes and you then just suddenly have the planet. It feels like it needs something special or some sort of decision at this event.

I think the pacing is good for most players, though, and I really like the research rate options.
I really like so many of the UX and UI aspects of the game. It was a real pleasure to play. The colour schemes and general lively feel of the game leave a sense of energy when you play it beyond the gameplay itself. The game mechanics are really starting to gel much better than any of the previous games.

I wasn’t aware that Siege ships were available so early in the tech tree and so was holding out for Planetary Invasion tech. Perhaps the Space Doctrine tech should say ‘Unlocks Frigate class ships and planetary sieges’ or something along those lines.
Siege victories need some kind of event to make taking a planet feel more special
I had a comment about empires placing colonies inside your borders and agree that this shouldn’t be allowed to happen (like with Starbases) unless you are at war with another faction. Or at least a major diplomatic incident.
mentioned that it is really important to have a Civilization summary screen that goes over your starting benefits as well as your Ideologies etc.