Star Ruler 2 Reviews

Star Date: Wrote this on Patch 1.0.0 ------------------------------------------------------------------ Captain's Log: Have been playing 4x Space Games since I was in elementary school starting with MOO, SE, Gal Civ, Stars!, etc. If there's been a good 4x game, I've probably at least tried it. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Combat Systems Ready: (+) Diplomacy - Faction on Faction diplomacy is simple enough. All of the basic functions are there. What really stands the game out is the innovative card system. Use influence to purchase cards to suggest new universal regulations such as annexing a rival's system or declaring your own homeworld as the home of the Galactic Senate. Buy other cards to support your own proposals while rejecting those of your rivals. Manipulate other empires to join your crusade against your enemies lest they remember your wrath in their future proposals. The possibilities are extremely deep and I'd place this as the #1 innovation for SR2. (+) Ship Building / Planet Building - Ships you build tile by tile. The larger you build a gun and it's subsystem, the stronger it'll be. Place armor around vulnerable areas such as the front but don't forget to neglect the rear lest the enemy sends in a pincer fleet. Planets have building room dependent on size. Each planet also has unique terrain features that seperate from other worlds. Depending on the terrain, buildings such as research labs and farms cost less so you'll have to plan accordingly to maximize your credits. (+) Fleets - Most games you'll command 20 ships in the late game. Some give you a hundred. Here the basic unit of combat is the fleet. You build a capital ship and then attach up to hundreds of smaller support ships to that capital ship to fight. What results is hundreds of laser beams, missiles, cannons firing off at each other. Each ship is rendered and simply put, that's just awesome. (+) Economy - I'm hesitant to label this as purely a strength. I find the economy a bit simple but more on a positive note than a negative note. For those who are used to the complexity of games such as Distant Worlds, SR2 will be a big downgrade. Each planet usually produces 1 resource. You then connect those resources to other planets that produce more complex resources to level them up and then you ship those complex resources to a major population center to level them up so they grow more and are more productive. What results is many resource worlds and a few concentrated centers in each empire. Now this does provide interesting opportunities such as allowing an apt leader to focus their attention on those major centers to deal the biggest damage. On the other hand, perhaps the regional capital is too difficult to assault and knocking out all of the food suppliers might be a more effective way to neutralize the population.... Overall, I'll label this a positve because for new players, it's simple enough to get into and only the most diehard captains of industry will feel bored with the economy of SR2. (+) Tutorial - There's a lot of games that do the tutorial wrong or make it super confusing. SR2 did it right. It explains all you need to know to get started and does so in a UI-friendly manner. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Out of Supplies (-) Empire Customization: Yes you can customize by assigning your empire a unique government / space travel method and a few other features. You can also give your empire a portrait and which set of ships to use but that's about it. I'd have liked to be able to pick more bonuses for each empire such as maybe I'll take +10% budget but my ships do -10% damage or some trades like that. These are usually basics and for the game not to have them available was a bit of a let down. (-) Tech Tree: The tech tree is a bit convoluted to look at. There's simply too many options being thrown onto a beehive grid that just disorients the eyes. Oh I need more budget, let me find how I can get to more business techs. Scan, scan, scan, oh there it is. Now I need more budget, oh the next tech and it's prerequisites for more budget is up here. It's just a bit too disorganized, especially for new players. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Overall I'd give this game 8 fleets blowing up out of 10. You'll find some new features that are unique to this game such as fleet design and diplomacy done right. I didn't touch on this but moddability will surely fix some of the weaknesses such as the lack of empire customization so that's why I didn't weigh too heavily on that part. Anyways, fleet battles are epic and hopefully we can see thousands of thousands of ships fighting one day over some backwater planet that was only made important because multiple fleets decided to clash over it. That's my dream and the dream of many 4x space lovers! ------------------------------------------------------------------ I recorded the tutorial for those who want to see some gameplay of all the features: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWXO4cpcMoc https://www.youtube.com/user/xBr0wnBear

This will be my longest review of a game ever for me , I am over 40 gamer and all those years, I thought they forgot how to make an indepth game. Now enters StarRuler 2 this game is great from top to bottom it keeps giving and giving. RTS customize and make your maps and systems in space till it fit you and your friends. so many options. Design and test ships before you ever go into battle ! The economy and way you look at your planets linked together is just wow good to say the least Game Play smooth as glass , never lagged once and this game is in beta ! Huge Huge Huge battles and Ships design vs ship design is a challenge! I love that a friend logs on to spectate a game we have been playing for hours and can just hop right in and play or watch! How many games have diplomacy that is a joke? alot This one I still dont know all the things you can do but the things you can do are sweet. Boost stystem output , increase cap ship stats ect. I felt i owed the Star Ruler 2 Team a thank you for a game with some depth and fun! Hours of FUN so Thank You! been long long while sence my friends and I had a great RTS! IN SPACE thats it for now If you like space RTS multi player this is the game for you! Did i mention you can generate a star or planet that is just to cool!

There are a few key elements which makes this game special: [list] [*]1) [b]You cannot stockpile money[/b]. If you didn't spend your budget then the excess will be transfered to either diplomacy, science, labor, energy or defense. You can also spend all your money for each budget but it means that you won't boost one of the resource listed above. [*]2) [b]Diplomacy is played through cards[/b]. Each card is an action, a vote or a proposition. All these cards are purchased with the diplomacy resource from a global pool showing who purchased what. The cards are sold in a kind of auction system so if you have a strategy and you really need to purchase a specific card then you will have to pay early and pay more for it. You can also purchase the leftovers and try a more defensive diplomatic approach while you beat your enemy with military. [*]3) [b]You cannot just colonize each planet as soon as you discover them.[/b]. This is how the game limits the "rush to expansion". If you just rush and colonize every planet you will find that your planets won't produce any money and will in fact cost you money. Planets have level, ranging from 0 (colony) to 5 (huge metropol). For a planet to produce money you have to upgrade it (starting from a L0 colony) by providing it with resources from other planets. In the end your empire will look like a pyramid of planets, a lot of small planets providing food, water and material to bigger and bigger planets. This works well, you can choose to auto-upgrade your planets and the game will make the import/export of resources for you. Some people prefer to optimize it and do everything by themselves. [/list] If you are a min-maxer you will find plenty of mechanism to keep you busy. For example the game let you unlock new systems for your ships through the research tree and then it's up to you to come with a new design including what you just discovered. (You can also download new designs from the workshop if you are uninspired). Nearly each planet comes with a specific resource which will boost something in your empire (production,research,diplomacy,etc) of unique features so if you enjoy fine tuning things you will be fine. On the downside, the research tree is a mess, it's difficult to find which technology you are currently researching but it makes the job. The main map can also be a mess when many races have overlapping systems, the frontiers become nearly impossible to read. But all of this is cosmetic and the core of the game is really good. The AI also tends to surrender too easily to another AI, which makes the endgame snowballing against you if you are too cautious. TL;DR The game needs more polish but this is a very solid, features filled RTS game.

This is an utterly stellar game (pun... partially intended). It's hard to express in a brief review what this game does and how well it does it, but suffice to say, it delivers on every promise it makes in the store page breakdown. It takes the basic 4X formula, then does so many innovative little things with it that I never once had another 4X game in my mind. As bold as it is in this regard, everything it changes WORKS, and oh so well. I'm really at a loss for how to properly lay out this review, so I'll refer you to some other users' reviews and instead touch on some of the highlights for me personally. It'll get long-winded, so if you want a summary, here it is: Star Ruler 2 is a spectacular game, both for 4X fans and sci-fi fans in general. Even RTS fans are like to find appeal. If you're on the fence, thinking, "Well it looks good, but I dunnooooo...", my advice is get it. I was, I did, and I'm not sorry. Now, to the point-by-point breakdown: - The hex-based ship design is way more fun than I'd have imagined. It really makes every ship "count". It attaches you to your creations. Furthermore, the design MATTERS. It's more than just racking up numbers and min/maxing; the combat in Star Ruler 2 actually simulates physical interactions between ships, meaning you have to take care to lay out your ship in a way that protects vital subsystems without sacrificing too much in the way of firepower and maneuvering. - The fleet system is just so great. Where most games force you to tediously build every single ship by hand and then group 4 to 12 of them to call it a "fleet", Star Ruler 2 centers fleets around one (often expensive) flagship, and has hundreds of smaller support craft attached to it. Each individual ship acts on its own in battle, but as a part of the whole the is the fleet. it's awe-inspiring to watch, and it somehow doesn't break my system, either! - One of my favorite features regarding ships is the ability to set a size. You input a size when designing ships, and that size scales everything from the health offered by each hex to the amount of damage your weapons inflict and your armor soaks. Even more impressive is that the ships ACTUALLY scale, physically, with the number you input. I was shocked when I made a copy of a size 500 battleship and set it to 5,000 as a test, to find it turned out to be bigger than the SUN. Given that you can make orbital battle stations and the like, you can literally build a Death Star; a hulking behemoth with over 8 million HP. (I am not exaggerating one bit; of course, this is if your empire can afford such a thing.) - For those who fancy ship creation and simply watching battles, there's a ship designer sandbox that allows you to create anything your heart desires, ignoring cost and all else, and spawn it in open space as an ally or enemy. If you just feel like watching ten massive fleets of your creation duke it out without all the 4X fluff, you can do that. - Empire management is meaningful. Where other 4X games just have you taking a planet and letting it get bloated with population to become a big producer of the major resources, Star Ruler 2 forces you to think. Planets require certain resources to grow, and these are supplied as exports from other planets. But a planet can only export a resource to one place. This means you have to really pour resources from several planets into one key planet, rather than just sitting idle while everything grows to insane proportions. - The 4X resources - in this case, things like wealth, influence, FTL charge, energy and research - aren't automatically produced based on abstract values attached to a planet. In general, they require pressure. Each planet can handle so much pressure, and pressure tells the planet what to produce. It's hard to explain... Here's an example. Electronics generate wealth pressure, because if electronics are being imported to a planet, this means they're being sold as a consumer product. That leads to sales tax revenue. In other words, the types of luxury resources a planet has, either natively or by export, drive the production of the major resources in your empire. It's a novel and very fun mechanic to play with. - Diplomacy matters! Influence is a resource you can generate, and you use it to pick up diplomacy cards or to play cards you possess. You can play these cards for a variety of effects, from spying on other empires to giving your flagship a name, but one key way you spend many of the cards is in diplomatic events. These are events that pop up, either organically or when played by another empire, and affect every empire equally. However, there are boons both for the empire who placed the most votes in favor of the motion and to the one who placed the most opposed votes, depending on whether the motion ends up passing or failing. These are often significant bonuses, and thus it can be worth going after them, plus there's the matter of the actual policy being voted upon and the outcome you desire for it. It becomes a tug of war for votes one way or the other before time expires on the vote, and you can either spend Influence to cast votes with certain cards, or you can offer gifts to empires who supply at least a given number of votes for or against the motion, according to your request. It's fascinating little minigame that makes the political side of the game fun and engaging. - The creation of races is pretty fun as well, and not extremely time consuming even if you want to bring in custom portraits and flags. The latter is simply a matter of dropping PNG images in the appropriate folders. The rest is a matter of choosing options for your civilization using a point-buy system. Similar to customization in the Endless 4X games. What makes it feel cooler, however, is the fact that you get two very specific types of options that feel like they have a pretty big impact as opposed to the options in similar systems: government and FTL method. Your choice of government dictates several starting bonuses for your empire, and certain choices will even affect your play style for the rest of the game. FTL method is something I'd never have thought of myself; you pick how your race achieves faster than light travel. You can build gates that allow fleets to jump between them, similar to the FTL in Mass Effect lore, you can have your race build standard old jump drives, tear holes in time and space to achieve instantaneous travel... Or, for a huge increase in points to spend on other aspects of your civilization, you can say you haven't even achieved FTL travel. There are several more things, and I could rant all day, but this review has already gone on far longer than I'd have liked. The summary: Star Ruler 2 innovates the genre in an astounding way, and is proving to be the most fun I've had with a 4X game since Civilization was a new series to me. It's a breath of fresh air that I feel is precisely what this genre needed. I've owned the game for around 20 hours and have been playing for nearly half of those; I can easily see myself playing for 150 more.

Just really good. The UI is intuitive and beginners can easily get into this game. Multiplayer is enjoyable and it supports over 20 players, which is mad to think about. Galaxies can have as many systems as you want and you can even build more than one galaxy. You can even blow up a blackhole! These are my favourite features of the game. [list] [*] The race and FTL you choose can drastically change how you play the game. [*] Ship design can be fully customized with gun, armour and engine placement and much more. Having no armour in the back will leave your ships vulnerable in the back when retreating, for example. [*] Ship AI can be customised, ships can be made to attack in the rear or to shoot from afar, very impressive. [*] Buildings on planets can be placed but civilian buildings will automatically be generated based on the pressure of the planet (a resource to determine how much the population build) [*] You can build moon bases, halo-esk ring worlds, ship yards, customisable orbital stations and customisable gateways. Content like this just makes it more enjoyable. [*] The resource, democracy and research mechanic is much better than it was in Star Ruler 1 and is really enjoyable. [/list] Some criticisms: [list] [*] The AI is hard, even on easy, so I would recommend playing with passive AI first. You need to expand or you will be out-expanded by the AI, I wish you could create a more quality over quantity empire but an AI is a computer and the larger they get, the more they can do. [*] It needs to feature more modules for the ships, there were tons in Star Ruler 1 but not as many here. [/list]

A hidden gem in the space RTS genre I haven't had much time to put into this game as of yet but so far I am loving how everything fits together. This is a complex game that doesn't have a big learning curve and is extremly addictive. Below i will describe the elements I like and some improvements that could be made. Empire Management: In most space rts games your star systems are pretty much self reliant and doesnt require reasources to travel from one system to another. Here, if you want to have a powerful industrial/economic/science system you will need that primary stystem to have trade connections to other systems. Each planet can level up, increasing the population and amount of structures that can be built on them but to level up the planet must meet certain reasource requirements (example to get to level 1, a planet must import food and water from both a food and water planet). What this does is allows the player to have multiple home worlds that have a specific purpose (industrial,economic,science) thus opening up a wide range of tactics an enemy can use to damage an empire. It's difficult to explain but once you see it for yourself it makes perfect sense. Fleet Management the combat in this game is all about building fleets and the start of every fleet begins with a flagship. Once you have a flagship built you can link multiple support ships, the only limit being the number of support points a flagship has and that number gets bigger the larger the flagship is so a size 100 flagship may only support a size 300 support fleet whereas a size 500 flagship can support 3000 using the right modules. Which brings us to.... Ship Design Like other space RTS games you can design the internal specs of your falgships and support ships (weapons, armor, shields, command and control modules ect) which allows you to change your tactics when approaching an enemy. Maybe you want a flagship designed around amassing a huge fleet, or a flagship that is a WMD, its all whatever you make of it. Combat Support ships will always stay in formation with the flagship so managing which supportships go with which flagship is not an issue as they are linked. This makes it easy to coordinate offensives and defenses with multiple flagships. in combat your flagship targets an enemy flagship (or whatever target you specify) and the fleet engages. It's very simple with the fleet management that is implemented here and it looks epic when you have massive fleets duking it out. Diplomacy This is the crown jewel imo. In most space rts's diplomacy takes a backseat with very limited options. Here it's a card game.... Not kidding, it's all about using influence (a reasource you aquire from specific planets) to buy cards that pop up from time to time. Certain cards are very desirable and your enemy may buy them before you do if you aren't quick enough. For example certain cards allow you to capure an entire solar system without ever firing a shot. Such cards when you use them bring up a galactic vote where you can use negotiation cards to win favor and it turns into a game of who has the more votes wins! It's pure genius and much like how politics works in real life. (it's all about political capital) There are some things that could use some improvement but i expect some of these things could be handled with mods. For example there could be more ship designs and different ship formations. The graphics are also not stellar (no pun intended) but that also allows for bigger fleets and smoother gameplay (I haven't run into any latency at all). A storyline would also help not only get new people into the game and learn the mechanics but also immerse people into the lore of the game. I think that's enough from me, this is a must buy for any fan of the space RTS genre that crushes others like it. I'm suprised I only heard of this after scrolling through page 10 of steam's top sellers in the strategy section.

Star Ruler 2 is a hybrid space 4X/RTS set in a fictional galaxy. What is Great about this game: - Intuitive and enjoyable fleet design, mechanics, and combat - Nicely paced 4X/RTS that does not require twitch reflexes or ADHD to have fun - High level of easy modification available and Steam Workshop support What is Good about this game: - Detailed ship builder allows for different ship designs as the game progresses - Significant options such as diplomacy and trade to play the game as you would want to - Good use of Steam features such as Workshop, trading cards, etc What is Bad about this game: - Frustrating initial difficulty that requires mods to become more reasonable - Some systems such as the economy, resource dependency, and planetary development are too obtuse even after hours of play Conclusion: If you can modify the game to relax its difficulty to a more manageable degree, Star Ruler 2 has a lot of good ideas to bring to the space 4X/RTS genre. 8.0 / 10.0

I do not even know where to begin. There are some amazing ideas in this game, and it seems a lot of polish even during early access. The diplomacy is unique and very complex, with influence and interactions that feel very very real. The planetary resource systems are fascinating to me, as is the resulting trade networks that grow organically. The ship builder is actually better than the first Star Ruler, which had an amazing ship builder. FTL was weak in Star Ruler 1, here there are 5 different methods each unique and tactical. Combat seems solid, manageable, and interesting. The flagship system means that you are ordering around fleets, not ships, but you still have a nice amount of control and the ship numbers are amazing. Everything is . . . perfect. I'm a highly critical gamer with jaded tastes. I've been disappointed by one 4x game after another. MoO3, Endless Space, Sword of the Stars 2, all sad memories. Even Galciv and Distant Worlds weren't quite good enough for me. I have never been so completely blown away just playing a tutorial, realizing the depth of the systems I'm seeing laid out in front of me. Assuming there is nothing horribly wrong with this game that is hidden from me currently . . . well damn, I'll say it, this might be the game that surpasses Master of Orion 2. It's an overused cliche, but it fits with this game. Things could go wrong, the AI may turn out to be useless, or some other chronic mistake, but I don't think so. Star Ruler 1 was visionary and flawed, fascinating but clunky. It seems they learned a lot from that game. Seeing this come from a small studio . . . I hope it gains the accolades it deserves. I also suspect modding will be amazing, since Star Ruler 1 had a wonderful modding scope, and I suspect they did the same here. Buy this game. No seriously, if you like 4x gaming at all, buy Star Ruler 2. This isn't a game you buy just to support the ideas of the devs, though those ideas are amazing. This is the game I wish I had paid more for, because I think I cheated the devs and got way more than I paid for. :::Post-release::: The game remains very strong, with several major improvements over the beta. The ship design remains the high point of the game, and sadly the AI remains a little weak. The AI is competent, certainly. It does know how to play the game properly, but it lacks aggression. On the other hand, it is smart enough to know when it has lost. I won a game recently without actually taking a single enemy planet. I out-expanded them slightly, and while they fought wars against each other, I offered surrender to whichever side was near to losing. Most of them accepted subjugation, since I was a friendly power that was roughly 10 times their strength. After I did this three times, I turned on the one remaining AI. I declared war, sent my massive ships. Three of my ships arrived in their systems and I received an offer of surrender before they could reach the planet. I think they just saw the ships blotting out the sun and said "Nope, this is not winnable." That is smart design and saved me a long slog to a certain victory. Recent improvements to the tech tree have made it far more understandable and elegant. Technology in general seems far more unique and useful as compared to the beta tech tree, which was somewhat repetitive. Performance remains very good, I've yet to see a bug or crash in any of my games. The races and various FTL methods have vastly improved from the beta, and the AI knows how to play every combination without error. The modding community is rapidly expanding, as predicted, and has already furnished several very solid mods. The devs have already incorporated some of the best additions as core gameplay, which does not surprise me. I still recommend this game highly, it remains a very original and solid 4x game. I have high hopes for the future, and I do feel they have delivered a solid game as it currently stands. Of course, I always yearn for more.

Having played for over 40+ hrs so far, my conclusion is that this is a solid 4x space game. Space 4x is my favorite genre and I've plaved many of them, and this game comes off as a very original and innovative game to me (have not played Star Ruler 1). First off, the game is an RTS, but its really meant to be paused...a lot (early on at least), and thats ok. It takes quite some time to get the hang of how colonizing works, what to build, what orbitals do, how pressue works, etc. There is a wiki to help you with most things, and some things you have to figure out by trial and error. I've restarted quite a lot of games because I'd always realize something new I wasn't doing. Main thing is if it seems too complex, just hang in there, read the wiki, experiment and you will figure it out, and its well worth it, trust me! -Research is nice, but the research screen could of been better. Easy to get lost, but it works. -Ship design is daunting(for me). Others I'm sure will enjoy it. Thankfully you can have the AI design any size ship you want, or you can see what other players have designed and just use their ship! -Diplomacy is unique, but good. Has a system where you can vote on certain propositions using cards and influence points. Has your standared treaties as well (don't need cards), like Alliance, Trade Treaty, Mutual Defense, etc. -Exploration is nicely done as well. When you start exploring you can run into multiple things, like Debris Fields, which you can scan to bring up events in which you choose what you want to do. You can find Pirate ships guarding special items which will give you certain bonuses. There is also Artifacts to find in which you can spend energy to activate whatever bonuses they hold. -Colonization is uniqe in this game as well, in which you constantly need to colonize planets for their resources in order to export them to planets you want to grow. It can get confusing, but pretty much how it goes is, growing a planet needs resoucres, and those resources need resources, and those resources need resources. Just pause the game, look at your surroundings, look at the planet you want to upgrade and it will tell you exactally what you need. -Buildings can be constructed on each planet by the AI and user. The user can build things like Research complexes, Labor Factories, Megafarms, and more, the AI builds smaller buildings helpling the planet as it grows. You can also build Orbital structures that go in space, like shipyards, supply stations, outposts, etc. Careful on what you build though, they come at a hefty maintaince cost. -Economy is done well in this game. You get income from population and "Income Pressue" and you have maintaince costs from buildings and ships. Every 3 minutes you will get cash based on the difference in your income and maintaince. So you can spend all your money and once the 3 minutes is up you will get another sum of money to spend in that time, based off the difference in Income and Maintanice. Seems confusing but it works nicely. -Combat consists of having a flagship with multiple support ships under its wing. Those support ships can specialize in missles, rail guns, lasers, rockets, etc. The flagship has a certain amount of support capacity, which means you can only carry so many support ships. Your ships move in which your flagship is in the middle and the support ships make a big circle around it, so its like a circle of death. Combat is real time and you can zoom in to see the action, but its pretty much just a bunch of balls of death shooting at one another, but it works for me. Although ship building and making your fleets can be confusing. -UI is only ok in this game for there are many things I wish they would of done. Can easily lose track of what you have building. -Graphics and Sound are just average, if not below par. Graphics never mean much to me in these types of games, and the soundtrack didnt do anything for me. Effect sounds are ok at best. -Scale can be whatever you want to be. You can choose from multiple types of universes and even ones with multiple universes, so you can make a game however big or small you want. Overall this is a solid game that id give an 7.5/10. It might take a bit of getting used to, but its really fun once you get the hang of it. One of the better space RTS games to come along since Sins of a Solar Empire.

There are two types of people who play Star Ruler 2. The first type are the kind of people who will not like this game. These people generally will lodge complaints including but not limited to: - Not as complicated as the first game - Art style differs from my preference - I dislike the economy system - Combat is too hands-off - There is no "soul" - The menus don't look like the first game - Research sucks - Diplomacy is confusing/useless These people also often do not have more than a few hours in game time. I'll tell you right now, at 5 hours in I had exactly the same complaints. The problem is that SR2 doesn't have a very good tutorial and that a lot of the complexity is somewhat hidden. Some of those complaints are also purely subjective and therefore cannot be addressed beyond "Yep, ok". For the rest of them, see below. To a person who hasn't played more than one or two games against some regular AIs, the combat would most certainly appear to be blob vs. blob. However once you realize how damage works and how to effectively utilize the support AI patterns it becomes obvious that, while not micro intensive, the combat is far from hands-off. It's just that the hands-on part happens in the preparation. Armor type makes a HUGE difference. Taking a torpedo on reactive armor will produce very different results that taking it on ablative. Neutronium may seem like an uber-armor but since it's so heavy and expensive it's rarely cost-effective. Weapon types are very important, the difference in effectiveness between a railgun and a laser depending on the situation can be vast. Ship speed is vital to not only engaging in time but fleeing as well, especially if you have no hyperdrive. Speaking of FTL, the type you have plays a big role in how you approach combat. Pinpoint Hyperdrive strikes are certainly effective, but fling beacons are far superior for offense (due to their speed and usually lower cost vs distance) though they lack easy-retreat capability. Gates are usually only used for turtling, but a gate in deep space can attack an opponent at points and from directions they don't expect. Slipstream can be used the same way except with less setup and more risk (since the enemy can also use your slipstream tears). There is a ton of depth, but again most (though not all) of it is in the setup. The economy would certainly seem strange and stupid, after all you can't stockpile resources and have to expand. Except that the cycle system discourages inactive play and actually results in the player actually making MORE ships and improvements than they would otherwise. Dry Docks can help you build ships that you couldn't otherwise afford. The forced expansion eliminates AI abuse strategies and also makes empire defense more of a priority. Even the smallest world can be a critical component in the supply chain for your L5 forge world. Losing a link in the chain doesn't have immediate crippling effects but it's certainly not something to ignore. The pressure system eliminates the need to micromanage planets beyond choosing good supplies and letting the system do its work. The level 0 resources (they don't contribute to planetary development) provide a variety of useful effects and if used correctly can provide a significant advantage. Terraforming can help provide more L1 resources for extra income and Artifacts/building/diplomacy can provide food and water if there is a shortage. Research would seem like a step back from the first game until you realize that SR1's research system, while unique, was inherently broken. Ships were outdated before they were even finished being built and the effectiveness of subsystems grew to such absurdities that tech advantages were instant-win conditions. The new tree applies passives automatically without the need for retrofit except if new systems are to be applied, and while not infinitely scalable is not the silver bullet in engagements that it was in SR1. Good tactics and planning can easily defeat fleets of twice the strength of what you're throwing at them. However it's fairly obvious why a lot of people would fail at this, since if you believe the combat to be DeathBlob Fights 2015 you wouldn't think of using any flanking or varied fleet makeups. Very few people complain about the diplomacy beyond "I don't like it" but the solution is simple. Add "Influence Peddling" to the main screen by clicking the "...". Keep track of who votes where and USE THE SYSTEM. It's incredibly effective if you put some time into it. Save some cards in case you need them. If you ignore it you're inevitably going to get screwed by it at some point. Oh and for god's sake read the Zeitgeist cards. Zealotry can be game changing and so can Co-operation. Well that was longer than I expected. The second kind of person is the type that will buy this game and enjoy it because they aren't looking for MOO2 Remake #232432 and are willing to put some time in to truly appreciate its uniqueness. If you read this far without downvoting this review you're probably in the latter category. Bear in mind that this is by no means a perfect game, but it is certainly worth the money. I paid full price for this game, and that is not something I do very often.