i heard this game is a break through with the space combat system and super weapon and diplomatic system, but does it differentiate too much from the norm of original RTS games??

(this thread is to state your opinion and discuss the games features with a respectful mind and a reason behind your bashings of the game. thanks)

It's a bit different, does take awhile to get used to, that's for sure. But there are some handy tutorials that take like half an hour or so and after that you can jump right in and conquer the galaxy. It's pretty much a cross between Civilization and Homeworld 2 if that helps give you an idea. Another game it's like is Conquest: Frontier Wars.

i purchased it yesterday and played a 1v1 skirmish and somehow beat the opponent on normal difficulty without much hassle. it plays similar to Star Wars:Empire at War so i already had a feel for the game. it was easily played and i soon found myself at the head of a massive fleet of warships.

Yeah it's pretty simple after you get the basics and such...but at times the AI can be utterly evil. Really depends on the map and your tactics.

That's a surprise, I recommend playing on a larger map. Even the easy AI can be a massive pain -- especially when a few factions ally against you. I've got one game going right now as the Vasari. I took out my closest neighbour in an eight player game, and now I'm being attacked from all sides from enemies because I've grown too powerful.

You'd be surprised just how quickly an AI fleet can appear and totally decimate three or four worlds before you can get the situation under control, and some of my friends have even mentioned that they had to play for a few hours longer overall because an AI team managed to rush their fleet through some fairly heavy defenses into the soft gooey center of their empire. I tend to build up a massive defense fleet, which is my strategy at the moment, since that large fleet of ships is an excellent way to get the sides to move away from their central planets. Wormhole time!

It's definitely got a different feel and it's not got as complicated a diplomatic system as I would personally like, but it does great in my opinion.

This message was edited by Mishtram on May 07 2008.

agreed. but once i had 8 giant fleets going i crushed any opposition and had fun just preparing anti-planet cannons just to piss my enemies off.

on one particular match i ended up making 3 anti planet guns and combining my fleets to make this massive war monster to crush a planet... didn't go so well... i intended to drag the battle out and have fun but i crushed them in no time at all.
more on the lines of 20 seconds. just enough time for the three planet guns to blow the hell out of their hope planet and my fleet of massive-ness to crush any opposition trying to leave the system.

Usually I'm a god if left alone just long enough to get some good cash flow.

First thing's first, grab as many planets as I can early as possible, while trying to get a powerful Cap ship up. Then trying to get cash flowing asap is what I do second. Thirdly is becoming a turtle of all turtles. Once I get my defenses up, there's just no way I'm gonna die, sure my planets can still be rushed and bombed...but that doesn't stop my defenses from doing their thing. Many times now I've had MAXED out fleets try and kill me, usually one planet gets wasted, sometimes a second too. They never get a third...their fleet is always nearly completely decimated.