Be Excellent To Each Other

So, I've just bought this (£30 ). I hope it's good.
It's being bummed a lot on other forums, but I've not even heard of it.

Fucking download is going to take an hour.
Dicks.

Oh my.
It's a bit complex.

I don't even understand the tutorial.

Sounds a lot like Homeworld from my experience so far then.

(Disclaimer: never could get on with strategy games. It's a miracle I can even play the Civilization games)

Nah, Homeworld isn't too bad.
Compared to this, it's fucking noughts and crosses.

What's it about?

You have a galactic empire. You need to make it bigger.

Ooh - is it a 4X? I love those games, but I've not found a really good one since Masters Of Orion 3.

Yes. You'll have to come over and show me how to play it.

Jesus fuck. This game is mental. Also, I'm pretty sure it can play itself happily without my involvement.

Funy you should mention that - I was just going to say it looks a bit like MOO 3, which I'm currently playing, after reading a billion frothing fanboys give it -400%/10 on gog for not being identical to the first two.

It is very complex, but I like the macromanagement style. Will have to have a look at this Distant Worlds thing.

I still keep going back to MOO3, because it's the best game of its ilk I've ever played. Even if the diplomacy is a bit wonky.

My biggest gripe (I find the self-contradictory diplomatic messages to be quite entertaining at least some of the time - "Filthy Nautilian, we appreciate your support. We demand your worthless empire gives us the following please, if it wouldn't be too much to ask", etc.) is that the shipyards don't auto-update with new technology. Considering the variety of ships and weapons you need, and the regularity with which you get new upgrades, it's a massive pain in the arse. Either I spent 15 minutes painstakingly reconfiguring every blueprint every eight or nine turns, or I continute to waste resources on inferior ships. Fume.

I like that you can largely delegate, though. No other civ-derived game has ever got that right - you end up micromanaging less and less as time goes on because the AI can handle the details if you give them a framework, whereas in most of those games, by the time things are getting really interesting, every turn becomes a repetitive chore.

This Distant Worlds looks at a scan a lot like a spiritual successor. I am interest.

I only bother updating designs when I go to a larger ship class, to be honest.

Distant worlds is frightning. I still haven't yet worked out what the game wants me to do - whenever I try and do something it tells me that function is automated, and I may as well just leave it alone. I'm currently watching it play a game.

Right, I've started taking control of things off the computer - ship design and colonisation is pretty much it at the moment. It's still going OK, I'm just finding it hard to work out whether I'm doing well or not.

Another Space Sim written by one bloke that no-one else has played is sitting on my PC at home.
http://www.starwraith.com/evochronmercenary/index.htm
Ooooh!
I've not played it yet, though.

It had better be less dull than Distant Worlds.

There's a demo of this one, at least.