I saw in a let's play (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NFPQe6yjQA) that you guys released an expansion recently. It's been a while since I played last, so I thought I'd give the base game another spin.



I played a small, hard, normal-speed 4-player game and randomly rolled Hissho again. After a nice and quick 4 hour game, I feel no compulsion to play again. It was kind of fun, but nothing really engaged me. Am I playing the game wrong?



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Notes about the game:

-I love all the little improvements you've made to the interface and game. Tactics on auto-resolve is a huge time-saver, especially when scouting. Exploration bonuses totally make the early game much more fun. Color coding on planet anomalies is nice and intuitive.

-Rolling Hissho again was unfortunate luck, as I'm a little tired of how the game always ends in a militaristic stomp. Still, I'd be okay with it if the game didn't boil down to Missile boat spam again (tons of small ships filled with missiles and minimal defenses).



-I don't see a really good reason to not just go missile-boats every game, especially if you luck into a quick Titanium monopoly. The AI just doesn't seem to be able to handle it. It smartly retreated a couple of times, but it just didn't know how to build a counter. I've played a couple of games where the AI does manage to load up on flak, but only very, very late in the game.

-What's more, when you just go straight missile boats, you're completing 5 to 10 constructions in a turn, and your governing hero levels up like a madman. I don't see a good reason to not do this, even if you just wind up scrapping the ships.



-I have never researched past the second rung of the military tech tree, to the Barracks and the 1st invasion module. Is there a reason to? The weapons on the bottom seem very effective through the endgame, and a module of missiles is cheaper than a module of flak. As far as I can tell, the only real counter to missile boats is smaller fleets of laser boats that can kill multiple ships in the opening round, and the lasers are not that far down on the tree. Is there anything actually interesting farther down the military tech tree?

-Is there ever a good reason to research or build kinetic weapons? Aside from kinetic weapons sucking and whether you're going for a Titanium or Hyperium monopoly, I don't really see a good reason to research one weapon type over another.



-Endless wonders seem pretty cool, but I've never activated one. Are the bonuses significant or unique in the stage of the game they come in? I've also never terraformed a planed, as it's burried in the planet menu and I always forget about it. Is it worth it? It seems awfully expensive. Can you terraform a planet before colonizing it?

-Trade routes become worthless once you control most of the star systems in the galaxy. I'm sure this is an intentional balancing decision, and I agree with it, but it took me a long time to realize it at first. Knowing this, I never build or research any + trade routes techs, because they rarely pay for themselves. Am I missing something? Or do I just need to play on a harder difficulty? And are blockade bypasses supposed to be a major part of the game?



-I wish there were some sort of hero ability or faction ability or tech I could research to break the 25% capture per turn cap.



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I guess that's it. That's all I remember specifically. Are these issues with the game addressed in Disharmony, or am I just playing the game improperly? If I were to take it for a spin on a harder difficulty, what sort of game settings would make it more interesting?

It's a whole different ball game with the Super Nova mod. Over 200 players have tried it and most of the feedback has been positive.



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