Reason13

Hell yeah! A Stardock fantasy strategy game! I'm definitely intrigued by the "researching magic and technology" aspect.

Why would you take perfectly decent 4X gameplay and force people to play it in real-time instead of thinking about their actions? Saying "It combines 4X depth with real-time gameplay" is like saying "It combines chess with Whack-A-Mole".

-For whatever reason, new anomalies appear, and are ready to be surveyed. Yes! This one is sorely needed. How about something like...A secret spy-training facility is found, and the agents flee to all corners of the galaxy. Result: Every civ gains 10 Agents. I'd like to see a new star system suddenly pop up somewhere.

I like to give ships a version number corresponding to their basic tech level, like 1 is starting out, 6 is ultimate. Then when I upgrade them I bump up the version. So there's a 'Lurker 3-0', 'Lurker 4-0', 'Lurker 4-2', 'Lurker 5-0', 'Lurker 5-1'...I use the ship description to include a summary of the ship's purpose. Beyond that, though, I like to think up interesting names. Each race has a different 'theme' for me...Like the Iconians have had fairly straightforward names. A construct

Here's another idea I had...I can never keep track of where my planets are (Hatch II just rebelled and joined me? Where are they again?) so...How about if on the main map the name of the star system is visible in large translucent letters. Maybe you can make it so it floats "under" the planets but can still be seen. It would make it seem like each area of space really is its own "region" with its own identity.

First, it would be great if you could scroll with the mouse wheel on the GNN Breaking News weekly news thing. Second...The way you get "Planet has rebelled and decided to join your empire" messages has always bothered me. The way they yank you out of what you're doing and force you onto another screen...especially if you get two or three in one turn, you can lose track of all the planets. And given that when a planet rebels, you usually want to modify its build queues, this is a problem

I've noticed that when I move ships, I'll move one ship and then another unmoved ship will automatically be selected. That's good. But then sometimes I'll move one ship, then go mess around on a planet...then I have no idea what other ships I haven't moved this turn. So how about a button that's "Select Next Unmoved Ship"?

I'm sorry, but this whole idea is stupid. Stardock is all about letting users do what they want. You can specify all the options in every game, you can play on any difficulty level, you can design your own ships and share them, you can mod anything you want...You can even install the game on multiple computers and play it without the CD! It's all about choice and treating the players with respect. Removing cheat codes would NOT fit in with that. Besides, I just don't see how it could

The Penny Arcade guy just reviewed the game...sorta. Link What he talks about is getting sucked into obsessive ship design and ignoring the rest of the game. To be honest, I can't tell if that's a good review or not.

Linked to a larger image. Taken March 1st, EB Games, Walt Whitman Mall, Huntington Station (Long Island), New York, USA.