Hahah, I was going to make this thread yesterday, but never got around to it.
I've gotten the game, and so far I'm liking it, although I'm having trouble figuring out how to do a few things like transporting my infantry from system to system, or capturing relics.
For a few criticisms, the ship design interface resembles a somewhat less elegant version of that seen in Gratuitous Space Battles. I find this, and several cases of very small and hard-to-click buttons, to be somewhat frustrating, but I expect this is a learning curve issue more than anything. Maneuvering through space can be a bit inelegant, as I have not yet found out how to instantly zip from system rather than tediously zooming out to galaxy view, and zooming back in to a different world. Also, I don't entirely get how subspace projectors work, and the wiki does not yet provide indepth information to learn.
Thusfar, my first playthrough (as the Ralyeh, the adorable Lovecraftian Cephalopod Zealots) has been a big learning experience. I took a very bad tech path that has left me scientifically behind and badly impoverished (due to never researching critical economic technologies that would let me extract more income from my colonies). Also, in my first attempt at war, all of my beautiful 'Zion'-class Frigates warped into Pollop space, to fight alongside my Human allies, only to fire two rounds and immediately retreat. It turns out that having spare ordnance storage is very, very important.
I have now designed an ordnance-supplying support frigate, hopefully this will alleviate my issues without necessitating a complete overhaul of every naval vessel I own. A spaceship design tutorial video would be extremely useful.
Overall, despite these criticisms, I'm really enjoying the game. It's fun, pretty (diplomacy screens look like moving paintings, I quite like the style), and has a wicked sense of humour (first contact with the Cordrazine, for example). The game's still in beta, so I expect that a lot of the tutorial and interface issues will soon be straightened out.
May the Elder God of the Devoted Ones Keep You, Fleshling
