What 4D said IS close to the truth. My frustration with Gal Civ lies in the inequality between me and the computer players, the lack of options and the role of luck.
The computer players know right at the start where all the yellow stars are and head there like homing missiles. If I roll a random universe (which would be my preference) I'd like to think I have as much chance as the next guy to stumble across the good planets. I've played a game where I rolled a value 26 planet within a couple of turns of my home world but by the time I'd found it and mobilised a colony ship to move there it was taken. SO... I reloaded from the start of the game and immediately sent my colony ship there. Sure enough I got there first but a couple of turns later another ship arrived and because it couldn't colonise it just sat there until the shooting started many turns later. Another time early in the game another player let loose an anomlay monster (since obviously I'm not stupid enough to do that myself) within a few squares of my cluster of planets. It proceeded to trash every ship I built until I gave up. I haven't checked to see if the anomaly monsters can be turned off yet but if they can they will be.
So supposing I manage to grab a couple of planets at the start that are around the value 16+ mark, I'll have 2 or 3 planets (on a large map, say). To grab any other planets I'll have to get transports even if I just want to nuke them. In fact a lot of the time there's only 1 research route to take to achieve a particular goal. With Space Empires I can capture a planet with troops eventually or pound it to dust virtually from the start. Later on I can use various stellar manipulation to take out entire Solar Systems if I want to. With Stars! I could land troops or colonists on existing enemy colonies or even mass drive them out of existence with megaton mineral packets. Even reading this back tells me that I just have a preference for 4X games with more of an emphasis on death and destruction.
The lack of ship design is also glaring and I hope it's added to the sequel.
On the other hand GalCiv has a few things that still draw me back. The AI diplomacy can be interesting, though OTOH there've been times when I've gotten dragged into a war over a random special event, which just seems wrong. Ultimately, the role of influence is probably the best thing the game has going for it.
GalCiv has the feel of an old school conceptual board game, rather than the meat and potatoes fun-with-spreadsheets 4X games I'm used to.
