Where to begin? Well, I guess it doesn’t really matter as long as I cover as much ground as possible. With that thought then, let me get into some specifics about the latest release. New zoom out level Absolutely love this, I detest games where I can’t see the entire map at once. If I can do it with 1,000 stars playing Stellaris, there was no reason why I couldn’t do it with ISG New aggression levels Quite honestly, this shows a neutral effect so far as the AIs are just as likely to pounce on each other as they are to do so against me, this is deadly to them with my play style. Overall I find that having a big fleet will offset aggressive tendencies from the AI… which is good as aggression is one thing, suicide another. New research and production settings Man do I love this, and I’m really going to get into this one. Unlike many players, I find normal settings (100% research and production) too fast. I can literally create a behemoth of an empire in 100 turns and my research goes so fast that ships become obsolete before they leave the assembly line. Up until now, I’ve been playing at 50% research and 75% production, guess what? I’m now at 25% research. Do you know what that does? Your first tech will take about 15 turns to research, and you will still be in the early game at turn 200. More than that, any initial advantages held by the AI in tech take on a new importance, any found ships become a dramatic asset, and discovered tech may never be overcome. This is a two edged sword obviously. If the AI gets the ships and techs, it’s a huge challenge, if I get them, it’s a restart. But that is me, for other players they can now accelerate and customize the game experience in ways that suit them best. Overall, this was a great move. Improved AI performance I’ve covered this separately but I’ll repeat the essence of it here. Yes the AI performs marginally better, even in combat. That said, there is still more that needs to be done in getting the AI to fight better, and I am referring to basic, obvious and easy changes. Surrender treaty Hmm. I like that it’s here but there are some observations I want to bring up. First it seems that factions surrender too easily. I saw the Nova surrender to the Cerrix, and they were both almost equal in power. I’m going to study this even more but I’m getting a feeling that the criteria for surrender is too liberal. Second, it doesn’t change much for me, the factions surrender to one another too easily and someone wins the vote a bit faster. (In my last session, two powers surrendered to the Cerrix on the same turn, the vote occurred on the following turn and they won. I declined the vote and now I’m stuck with only a single path to victory). Now obviously if your style of play is different, this pact can come in handy, provided you are one of the powers in the running, a position I rarely find myself in. Finally, I also believe that there is an opportunity to do more with this as right now, a faction that has surrendered becomes easy pickings for me. Perhaps if the faction was treated as a protectorate, meaning instant war from their overlord if attacked, we could get more mileage out of this. Similarly, maybe trade, mining, and research treaties, should be restricted to the overlord only while the pact is in effect. Anyway, I think this needs to be observed, and perhaps adjusted and/or enhanced, in my opinion, it’s a great idea with a lot of untapped potential. Eye candy I noticed the new eye candy, especially at the diplomacy screen, nice job guys, it adds to immersion. Going forward I would love to see this game take the next step and break through to a higher level. As I wrote privately once, it needs to follow the formula set by MoO2, which in many ways was structured like a good novel. That game was a series of crises, each one to be overcome by the player, each one escalating in both importance, and ultimately satisfaction. We all know how that formula worked out in the end.
