I have mixed feelings on the current poll about v1.2. On one hand some of the game improvements are great but on the other the game has started locking up my pc at times. I'm playing with the same settings I played v1.1 which I did not have any system issues with. Since it is giving me a hard lock, I'm not catching anything with the SmartException software. Anyway, on with my random thoughts...
Building over starports has to be one of my favorite improvements in v1.2. It's great how the simple things can make a big difference.
Farms and bonus food squares: What's the point? Why put something in a game that is extremly difficult to manage even at lower settings. In my last game, to use a 100% square with advanced farms and I had to have 7-10 VRC scattered across the planet to keep the approval rating acceptable. If I used 2 advanced farms on plain tiles I had to have at least 4 VRC's to keep the approval up. For being well fed, the population sure has an attitude! The 300% bonus when having Advanced Farm Tech is almost worthless unless you need to bring your approval rating down in a hurry for some reason.
Factories: Anything higher than factories is a game killer until late in the game. On a gigantic map some planets are ready for the bigger manufacturing centers but since there are still colony ships being sent out the option becomes should I keep the older planets in limbo or have the new planets sitting for 40 or more turns to produce their first center. This also limits some of the other techs that can be researched as buiding some of the advanced buildings with factories take forever as well.
Metaverse Scoring: This one totally has me floored. My character Norad has 27 games and a score of 162K. I stared a new character that I have played 2 games with and have a score of 165K. Something just doesn't seem right with that picture. Sure they are bigger maps but 2 games to outscore 27 games?
AI and buildings: v1.2 seems to have fixed the craze of the AI to build influence buildings but now they do not seem to build them at all. Farms seem to be the only bonus tiles they use correctly on a continual basis.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the game...A lot! (I enjoy it enough to have pre-ordered the XP) The above are just some of the things that I ponder from time to time. There are other little things that I personally find to be an annoyance but I didn't mean to turn this post into a negative thing so I'll stop. All and all I feel the good out weighs anything that I might find annoying. I feel it is a great game and great investment.
The Star Dock customer service is another reason I've pre-ordered. I've also found myself looking into some of their application software because of the service I've received on this game. I rank service fairly high when it comes to spending my hard earned money, but that is just me.
