So far I've played two games (large & gigantic) with the Dark Avatar beta 1a and I really like what I see! The game feels not only fresh again but overall just more interesting.

I had to stop both due to technical issues and I've already submitted bug reports and suggestions via email. Rather than repeat those reports here, I thought I post some of my general feelings about the gameplay (not UI or technical) additions and see what everybody else thinks too. These thoughts acknowledge that this is a beta and that many of these things aren't play balanced yet, etc. It's just a my general impression at this point on the new features so far:

DIFFERENT WORLD TYPES - Grade: A

- They really break up the traditional colony rush which is a good thing. I always found the initial rush a tedious but critical portion of the game. With the different world types, there is now additional strategy involved in the land grab which makes it more interesting. e.g. I was racing another colony ship for a couple of planets in my space. Upon comparing technologies I saw he could only colonize one of them while I could grab either. Of course I took the one that we had in common and got both at the end of the day.

- It also leaves a few worlds available until mid-game which can tip the balance or offer a foothold where it would be otherwise difficult to obtain. Playing on a gigantic map I found two class 1 restricted planets that the AI had ignored well into the mid-game. I grabbed them both and they turned out to be potential class 16 worlds! It took some work to build the colony with the expensive buildings I had at that point but...

- Lastly, it also makes you rethink your early tech-tree path. I have a fairly regular start progression but now there is value in interrupting that to take advantage of colonization opportunities. Once again - a good thing.

ASTERIOD MINING - Grade: B

- I *really* like the idea but, unlike the world types, I didn't find that this enhanced the strategy all that much. Now that part of my industry had moved off world I just had to be more patient about getting my resources. Because they flip with influence, I was reasonably assured that I would eventually get the mining centers close to my planets. The ones further away, offer a smaller bonus so gaining/losing them wasn't as severe anyway. I didn't do the math and was just playing on 'feel' but overall it didn't make me play much differently.

- Well, what it did make me do differently was micro-manage my ships around them. Asteroids slow your ship movement to 1 when you pass through them. Currently, the AI has not been upgraded to fly around them even if you have enough speed. So, if you aren't paying attention, your speedy ships will fly straight through them an you'll lose a couple of turns (flying in where you'll stop, and flying out at speed 1). Once the AI path finding is upgraded (I'm assuming this isn't a design decision) it will be fine.

- I've seen the suggestion on several other posts about making resources in non-star-system-asteriods instead of free floating "balls". This makes a lot of intuitive sense but obviously changes the strategy quite a bit as miners - not constructors - would been needed. Also, they would be susceptible to influence flip just like other mines. Because these super mines are so valuable (and unprotected) they would get quite a cluster of influence star bases built around them. They'd also probably need baby-sitting during conflict as they wouldn't be star bases anymore with the ability to defend themselves. I'm really not sure if a change that major would be good or not but it would certainly shake up existing strategies. Personally, I'm undecided at this point but would be interested in hearing opinions.

MEGA EVENTS - Grade: Potential A but jury is still out...

- Once again, I like the design decision to shake things up and - depending on how they finally get implemented - I expect to like them a lot. Without random events, the end game can get tedious when victory is basically assured. But, in each game I've played only the super-acceleration of a particular race was triggered. It didn't turn out to be that much of a threat in my games and this particular event I believe was already present in 1.4 anyway. I have yet to experience "The Plague" but look forward to the panic

SPYS - Grade: C

- Although I expect to be in the minority here, at this point I don't find spies that compelling. I felt that the only real value to using them was on major buildings like Manufacturing Capitals or special one-of-a-kind structures. The problem here was finding the damn things. I had to click on each world and hunt around for them which I found tedious (does the AI have the same restriction? i.e. can't place spy if your planet is in his fog of war?). Perhaps I'm just not used to them yet but all I did was keep some in reserve to nullify the spies used against me or protect existing structures. It felt like a resource drain rather that a major strategic tool. However, I acknowledge that this may just be my current gameplay style and I may just need to get used to them. What is the general vibe out there? Yay? Nay? or Meh...?

SUPER ABILITIES - Grade: A

- These definitely need balancing but they do give distinct personalities to each race. Brad has his work cut out for him getting these right. It's hard enough to balance units when each AI has the *same* unit types. But balancing between different unique and powerful ones? Tricky! But they are a great addition!

SHIP TEMPLATES - Grade: A

- This is a great stop forward but I'd suggest tweaking this even more by limiting ships by racial type. Sure, you can offer parts sets that revolve around a certain style but in the end, let us do what we want - at least for custom races. Give access to ALL ship parts/styles. In my second game I played custom again (I always do) but changed the base ship style to see what other parts might be available. When I started playing however, I found that I couldn't use the ship templates I'd made last game because I had picked a different part style this time. What the heck, give us the freedom to mix and match as we wish. Why not?

- Also, when building a new *template*, give access to ALL the hulls and non-functional parts (once again with no style limits). Sometimes, I just feel like making a new ship for the next time I play or whatever. Unless I save an many endgames with all the hull sizes researched where I'm playing each of the different races (to access their styles). I can't just jump in and make any type of ship I want.

- Kryo's hull system mod is amazing and the ship designs are awesome! I use those exclusively when playing Dread Lords. It will be amazing to be able to trade template designs with other players!

I've obviously got too much time on my hands tonight. Man this got wordy - sorry about that Keep up the good work guys. Way to make a great game better!!!