Interstellar Space: Genesis is a good game. I am a 62 year old retired engineer and wargamer. I started playing Avalon Hill’s ‘Gettysburg’ when I was nine. I graduated to PCs with ‘Reach for the Stars’ on my Apple IIe in 1983. I am a Gamer and I like this game…But….. You already know there are some minor rough spots in the game response (battles) and the UI, nothing big. And the game set-up need more options. Also, some things that spring to mind are the automatic engine upgrade (pretty strong, but OK, or not?) and more branching in the R&D tree might be nice. They seem like efforts to reduce Micro-management. There are probably a lot of balancing issues that will want fine-tuning. But none of those things touches the itch that keeps me from being totally addicted to this game. I have been having a hard time figuring the problem, but I think it comes down to “Pacing”. Something is off. And I do not know what. My best guess is that it has something to do with Time. Production times seem OK. But R&D seems too quick and ships get from star to star too fast. It detracts from the sense of effort and accomplishment and “Epic-ness”, I think. Since these variables interact I am not sure what a better mix would look like. And the “right” answer would probably vary from gamer to gamer. My suggestion is to allow more flexibility in the game creation, allowing the speeding/slowing of research and production and a way to stretch the galaxy out for a given number of stars and to speed-up /slow-down ship speeds. Programming the galaxy size parameter would probably be a challenge. Feedback would then allow you to maybe create a better starting default. BTW, the game is beautiful.
Dude! It was what suckered me into strategy games, I found an old copy at the local five and ten for a steep discount and picked it up, memories.
