I bought the game I think in spring, and got the Disharmony some days after the release. I would like to say this is one of the 2 space strategy games that are actually playable and fun for me. Other is Sins of a Solar Empire, in which I am a relatively good player (doing actually well in multiplayer skilled games, and this may explain my difficulties in Endless as that game is totally different from this one).



I really like how the game looks, modern, clean, and the music is good, space music that really fits the atmosphere.



I am a weak singleplayer even after several months of playing, so I am nowhere a pro and maybe see many things wrong, any help on these is greatly appreciated.





I have 2 main problems with the game that are seriously annoying for me.



1. BATTLES and Ship designs.



I must say battles in this game are bad, really bad, absolutely no fun and somewhat irrealistic. Though this paper-scissor system is good, but somehow it still needs work to be actually fun. I have no idea what fighters and bombers do as their power is nowhere listed and not added to the overall MP of the ship design and I don't really like testing things when pure weapon and defense ships are already working somewhat. It would be good to clarify what fighters and bombers do because the way it is now, I have absolutely no idea, they seem to be weak from their numbers though I know they bypass defenses but take incredibly large part of my ships and their stats does not justify their cost in my opinion, but I may be totally wrong, so please someone clarify this to me.



Fleets. What I like in Sins of a Solar Empire is that my fleet goes into battle against the opponent's fleet, big battle, under my control most of the times as I am a good player in that game, I can see what is being done, can alter strategy, etc. In this game few of my ships attack few of the enemy ships and that's all. No matter how many ships I have all I can do is have 10-20 small battles involving 10-20 ships and it will decide the main battle. This is no way fun for me, not a chance of bigger fights only dozens of smaller ones. That is not realistic at all.

I must say the game is fun for me to the point where battles start, from that point it gets boring, fighting those small battles turn after turn... It would be extremnely appreciated if there would be bigger battles.

I have very little control over what is being done in a battle, though it is being worked on as I see from recent patches, but still very far from I control this and that ship, etc. The battles are basically numbers and modifiers against each other, without much tactical skill needed, only in making the ship types and selecting the cards.



Ship designs. I don't understand why everyone likes custom ships, I have seen it in many space strategy games, and I find it extremely difficult to handle. Would it be that hard to actually put in some basic designs like the ones AI use in this game? Templates, because I am terribly bad at designing ships and can only guess what is good for what, and I never had the courage to try support modules because that would completely ruin my existing ship types so basicaly every time I rely on my 1-2 max skilled heroes and their fleets to hold the lines, I don't like glass-canon designs, I hate losing things.



2. PLANET TYPES and their economical impact. In reality, an ice planet or a desert planet would be extremely valuable for mankind, but in this game they are bad because of their low industry, so early game they are not worth that much. I guess if humanity would find an earth-like planet covered by a huge ice age near us it wouldn't just be a: meh, I will take it when I have nothing better..

Terran, jungle and ocean planets are not much better than arid and tundra ones. Difference is that they have some more population, and the FIDS is more balanced on them, but the same amount per population. I don't think this is a good thing, especially for industry-heavy systems, jungle planets should be much better for industry, and same goes for every inhabitable world

I am glad Gas Giants are actually good now, though a system with a methane is way better than a system without it due to the extreme industrial output of it.



Terraforming. It's just a big facepalm for me. This is totally wrong to terraform planets the way it is now. One does not simply make an Ocean world from an Arid one. Or an ICE from a VOLCAN... Something should be done to avoid these stupidities, make the terraforming cost 2x or 3x industry if someone chooses the more irrealistic one, and there sould be a chain that is easier to finish, like volcan-desert-arid-terran/jungle.



Some minor things that annoy me:



Racial differences. Going in a good direction, I was really disturbed by the Sheredyn that was 100% united Empire before the Disharmony, BUT still needs huge amount of work as factions are still not as diverse as they shoudl be, but I have to admit the changes of Disharmony and the patch near it's release did a good job.



NO ALLIED START. I am really disappointed as this is my favourite game-type in most of the game I play. I read somewhere it is because you have to scout the other empires and etc, but seriously, this is a big mistake taking away a big layer of fun, because stupid AI will not stay with you forever and many times leaves the alliance for no reason at all... Would be good to start as allies and no chance of getting out from it. A true 2v2 or 3v3 game, not a strange FFA where the best that can happen is me and my "ally" against 2 separate empires, so a 2v1v1 as it is difficult for the AI to make alliances and stay in them.



Balance between races, it really needs more work, especially on the Harmony. I find Sowers weak too



Fair starting positions. These do not exist in this game (or am I totally blind?).. It would be a good option to be able to create balanced galaxies with the same percentage of star types and planet types or something. I don't like to lose the game just because the AI got several awesome systems while I only got garbage ones with weak or difficult planet types. It's good to have many lava, asteroid, gas giant but not in the early game.



Heroes. It should be guaranteed that you will get at least 1 corporate or administrator hero, these can mean so much in the beginning. And a pain for the Harmony, they have nothing to compensate the lack of heroes, only in the late game if they reach it.



AI and colonization. I think AI kills himself many times with the colonization of every possible planet he sees. Everything, no matter what negative anomaly is on it, and even before specializing his worlds. And he refuses to research easy things like removing negative anomalies, exploring moons or increasing population on small and tiny planets. Even in the late game when these would only take 1 turn to be researched. Even bigger problem for the Sower AI.



TRADE. Was a big mistery for me for many weeks, now I understand how it works, though still not very clear how it is calculated what system will have a trade route and which won't, some in-game explanation would be good, and somehow indicating that the newly selected trade route increasing thing will have what effect on the system (1. will it have a trade route actually? so is the current limit reached? what numbers of dust and science will it generate to maximize trade income and not losing dust on weak or empty trade routes). And trading with your own systems would be nice I think, basically trade has no sense if all the AI hates you and refuses to make peace or you just want an 1v1. And the temples giving trade bonuses are worthless if you don't have peace treaty with anyone.



Diplomatic deals: the game is like- Good luck making a fair deal and call me if you ever succeed. I can't remember the last time I made a fair deal with an AI. The funniest thing was when I offered him EVERYTHING I HAD for a high level research that would take like 4-6 turns to complete, it wasnt even near the middle of that counter... Or a medium level thing, I need to give him a higher level stuff, or rare resources, or several medium-level techs, I never feel those deals to be fair for a thing that would require 1-2 turns to be researched.



Summary: this game is a really good one, it is a rare occasion if a game can entertain me for several weeks, but this game did. I only mentioned the things that annoy me above, because I did not want to write a 100 page list of awesomeness things If the battle system would be improved much to allow more control over stuff and players would be able to make competitive starting galaxies, this game would be the best space-themed game ever.