I tried out the demo. I think the game is brilliant, refreshing and new in it's gameplay. This consept of rolling 2D universe in a n exploration game is good with the floating planets. However the illusion of reality is seriously severed by these factors:
1. The space should be streched in the scale of x 10, including all the distances between planets, moons and stars. Jupiter is really very far away from the inner solar system. The exploration needs to be so that planets are like islands in the ocean, not like hopping accross a river from stone to stone.
2. The amount ot stars needs to be multiplied by 100 (in the huge game). 90 % of these should not have planets
3. Think of the old Amiga game Star Control 2 where you steered your space craft in duel and throttled around a planet, which floated in 3D against the star backround. You should be able to travel continously like this in the 2D map, accross the really really vast distances, and of course delicously faster with new techs. May this be turn based, fine.
4. Think of the old Amiga classic Millennium, which was situated in the Sol system. You probed and colonized the planets and their moons in a reality based universe. You had detailed tech on the planets and the moons and what kind of resources and limitations to habitation they had. You should be able to research the planets and have some good science fiction information about them.
5. The planetary model should also be more detailed, with more space between the planets and more variety in the moon shapes and classes.
The present model of round solar systems with single planets equally distanced from each other and stars in the same 10 cm apart is just not realistic.
Yours, faithfully,
A science fiction and tactics fan,
Teemu Ruskeepää,
Finland
