actually, is there anything from stopping us beta testers from writing previews on the game? I mean no mag has covered this yet to my knowledge, so aside from what ppl can ascertain from these forum posts there is very little actual info out there.

just a few lines of info about how this pack (currently) works: there are a series of pacts each race can research and conclude with other factions. these give various benefits from more trade income to tougher armour to weapons improvement, but you have to have a certain level of relations to be able to conclude them (also with allied players and humans even I think). envoy ships help you get these relations by providing a gradual relations bonus with grav well's owner. they also have a series of other unlockable abilties that also increase relations, income, culture and other parameteres. lastly, the way relations are determined is more complex and based on a number of factors ranging from adjacent territory over racial predisposition to the intensity of fights between factions and more.

there are a few more things like thougher pirates (though they are apparently not fully in yet, there shall be missions for them too I read), but this is just a quick and dirty run-down of what is currenty in the beta and how it works.

in a nutshell: Some fantastic Idea, so far terrible implementation. But thats a beta (said the same thing about entrenchment in beta and I loved that damn expansion like my it was my digital child). Come full release (as long as they have added in some espionage stuff) it will rock your socks off. If your looking for a great expirience now though id advise you to wait...

yeah yeah, I kinda know, it's not my first beta with them, you know . just saying there hasn't really been much public info. maybe I shall do a more detailed run-down or preview if interest is there.

I'll admit that the lack of new toys to play with is off-putting. Right now it just feels like there is a new ship and some neat research-sharing options, whereas in Entrenchment we had tons of new things to fool around with. Given that, the fact that pirates are suppose to go through a major overhaul and there are still things to add into the game give a chance at Diplomacy being worthy. If the developers can make the addition of the envoy as important as the addition of the starbases, on top of the gameplay changes, then it'll definitely be worth $10.