As a long time fan of Stardock's (I own all the titles since Gal Civ 1), I am intrigued by SK. I like the concept of the game and the asymmetry - it could be a nice fresh take on the 4x games, which at this point, all are starting to feel a bit similar.
My concern is this: the game seems to use the creaky Elemental engine. No one, least of all Stardock, has good memories of the original Elemental. FE/LH was a vast design improvement and a very solid game. But its engine was never great. Mid game took such an FPS hit for me, I couldn't even play it on my old computer. I complained at the time and Brad responded - Stadock was able to optimize a bit but it still was relatively unplayable midgame. I now have a top-of-the-line new Alienware computer these days, and things even get a little chunky midgame for me now.
Seeing the dev-streams (I'm not in beta - sorry I only pay for a finished product), the game's art looks charming (certainly an improvement over FE), but the engine shows its age compared to contemporaries (Civ and Age of Wonders 3, namely). GalCiv3 got a new engine, why not SK? And how is the performance? Will it bog down mid game like FE/LH?
