Combat is gonna need a huge overhull in ES2 both space and ground. The current state is both boring and uninteresting.

If the battle in ES2 is like in ES (Great visiual fight but not so much commanding ) i would say ok but i wish that there could be more . I would like if you have the nice view in the fight but you can command "Ship 3 attack enemy ship 5" or " Ship 2 try escape" (If damaged and you want to keep it) or " ship 4 help repair ship 1 " (Thats another idea special ship improvements wich block for the ship all wepons improvements but it can help repair other ships or push the Damage otput of one ship /push the Defense of one ship for a time )





(I am sorry but my english isn´t very well )

Combat never was very interesting to me in ES but granted the fascination first dropped significantly once I figured out how to win reliably. When I first thought strategy and planning made a different I was captivated and glued to the screen. After I figured out its all specific designs which the AI cannot counter combat became an "auto-resolve" matter which I wasnt very interested in anymore.



While the space animations in ES were misleading to many players who thought ES was featuring epic space fights I consider it "well done" for the genre. Too many 4x games either reduce combat to a window of stats or try to bring it to life in a manner which turns it into a RTS. Even tho you only watched "clips" in ES they at least mirrored the actual fleets and actions taken from each side which made it awesome to look at for me.

Have you played SOTS1/2?

Do you mean Homeworld? It had 3D combat, but it was also an RTS, I don't think that's really the focus of a 4X to offer such battles. Don't get me wrong, I see the interest, but I think a lot of 4x games are already struggling to stay away from too much micro-management, and that kind of tactical placement of defensive features is something that'd slow down the pace of the game significantly.