First i just want to congratulate every one at IC and SD!! you guys have done an AMAZING job. This game really is brilliant. It literally is THE game i have been waiting to play for pretty much my whole life...
That being said, and since i know you guys want the best game possible; Ill once again through my two cents in as i have many times through out the beta process.
Initial Likes: EVERYTHING! really, i wont name them all because that would take too long...
Initial concerns:
The recourses still seem to be a bit unbalanced in very early game play. Ive started 3 different games this evening trying different starting strategies and conditions. It seems that normal recourses with normal game play is just way too slow. I was on a small map, crescent something or other (i already forget). I spent about 2 hours trying to just keep a hold on my 1 planet and a few asteroid fields. It felt the Pirates were too strong and i was just not getting enough recourses to stand up for myself. So i started again, this time another small map, but with high recourses. This time the game seemed to fly! i had research done and a good sized fleet before the first announcement of an impending raid. It was a little too easy, so i started again. this time with all the same initial conditions as the first game to try a different strategy. This time once again the recourses seemed to crawl. the Pirates just made the game very slow. given, with a new starting strategy i did do a lot better. I didn’t waste any time investing in pop infrastructure right of the bat.
My initial suggestion would be to tone the pirates back just a little at first, maybe smaller fleets for the first raid or two, and definitely need the home planet to have most, if not all its pop infrastructure upon starting. This chews up your money in the beginning trying to just get an economy that is not loosing money. (maybe on hard you could make us have to build this up manually)
Any way, maybe this is all part of the plan, and im just not good enough against the new AI to handle playing on normal yet. And yes this was all played on normal lever. Once again, thanks for an AMAZING game. I know you guys appreciate the feed back so im just trying to help. And if any one is reading this trying to decide weather or not to buy the game. BUY IT!!! IC is VERY good about taking feed back and improving the game. SO much of it is already flawless... a few tweaks and i have no doubt itll be getting some nice awards in its future!!!
-TheTraviler
