Got a bit of a learning curve to it, that's for sure. My first playthrough on n00b mode lasted for a few hours, but my society imploded from being unhappy that I expanded so fast. Many of my systems went on strike so that I couldn't produce anything, and then came the pirates. I couldn't produce anything to fight them with, and the AI were all "suspicious" of me or worse, so I eventually gave up.
Second playthrough on n00b mode I stayed within only a few stars to keep folks happy and dug through my knowledge tree, but I couldn't churn through enough research to keep pace with the AI. I eventually got far enough behind that I gave up.
Third time is the charm I guess, but only because I hopped online to get some help. Went for broke on food, researched the tree more evenly (but spent a bit more time on the western / left edge to get things like Colonial rights and Infinite Supermarkets pushed through to make the colonies happy), grew the empire quickly and weathered most of the approval bumps. That game probably lasted 12 hours; I eventually won by killing everyone else.
Findings thus far:
Battles are uninspired; I only played through maybe TWO battles in "manual" mode. Right before battle, the little 'bar graph' that weighs the two sides is meaningless. Border skirmishes when you don't "own" a system yet can be irritating, especially if you aren't trying to get into a war. Pirate battles are pretty stout even on n00b mode, but they do prompt you to get moving on your shipbuilding.
On n00b mode, the random events seem to be generally more helpful, but even then they're still irritating. I'd probably just turn them off.
Heroes can be important to battle fleets, but their use in systems appears (so far?) to be limited -- most of the 'high level' power ups are specific to battle rather than economy.
Just like any game of this type, your society can be a pain in the ass to keep happy. There's always a trick to it, I just haven't entirely figured it out yet on this one. Food is a big component, but that's assuredly not all... Everyone in space apparently hates expansion, or so I'm told. Is there any space faring race that LIKES expansion?
Well, anyway, I'll get my $10 out of it for sure. I do enjoy playing, but it has some weak spots.
Second playthrough on n00b mode I stayed within only a few stars to keep folks happy and dug through my knowledge tree, but I couldn't churn through enough research to keep pace with the AI. I eventually got far enough behind that I gave up.
Third time is the charm I guess, but only because I hopped online to get some help. Went for broke on food, researched the tree more evenly (but spent a bit more time on the western / left edge to get things like Colonial rights and Infinite Supermarkets pushed through to make the colonies happy), grew the empire quickly and weathered most of the approval bumps. That game probably lasted 12 hours; I eventually won by killing everyone else.
Findings thus far:
Battles are uninspired; I only played through maybe TWO battles in "manual" mode. Right before battle, the little 'bar graph' that weighs the two sides is meaningless. Border skirmishes when you don't "own" a system yet can be irritating, especially if you aren't trying to get into a war. Pirate battles are pretty stout even on n00b mode, but they do prompt you to get moving on your shipbuilding.
On n00b mode, the random events seem to be generally more helpful, but even then they're still irritating. I'd probably just turn them off.
Heroes can be important to battle fleets, but their use in systems appears (so far?) to be limited -- most of the 'high level' power ups are specific to battle rather than economy.
Just like any game of this type, your society can be a pain in the ass to keep happy. There's always a trick to it, I just haven't entirely figured it out yet on this one. Food is a big component, but that's assuredly not all... Everyone in space apparently hates expansion, or so I'm told. Is there any space faring race that LIKES expansion?
Well, anyway, I'll get my $10 out of it for sure. I do enjoy playing, but it has some weak spots.
. That could be the difference in growing a system in 20 turn vs 1.