State of the game?

[Kahuna]

So how's the game working now? I haven't played since the beta or whatever and there were a lot of bugs and it felt like I could really affect anything in-game. How's the balance at the moment and is the player actually able to change the course of the game? How difficult the game is?

[Misery]

Bugs are few at this point; most of the game was tested into total oblivion.  And then the expansion caused the removal of even more.

Balance-wise, hmm, I cant speak too much for the solar map side of the game... I usually just play that on normal difficulty and can get a little lost in it every now and then (and the other 2 modes added in the expansion are balanced a bit differently).  More familiar with the combat, I always have that on misery difficulty.   For the base game the combat is fairly balanced though certain abilities are definitely OP, but not nearly enough to actually be a problem.  I have a hard time judging the balance of the expansion's combat.  I balanced out the stats on all the new ships as best I could, and tested them about a million times over, particularly as I kept tweaking and building upon the attack patterns they use (all of which are dramatically more complicated than the ships in the base game).  But having seen only so much feedback on that stuff, it's hard to be certain that it's truly balanced, but I think it came out pretty well.   The Obscura ships in particular are very nasty, with extremely complicated patterns on each one, which is exactly what Chris had wanted me to do with them.   They came out well I think, but the mode that focuses on them wont be for everyone because of how hard they can get.  Every pattern though is technically dodgeable, even in the game's turn-based format.   

Now as for being able to affect things in the strategic side of the game, I'm guessing you had only played it pretty early on in the beta, when it was definitely a bit of a mess due to, well, it being early on in the beta.  I think they did a wonderful job with it though in the end; there's a ton of different ways to approach different situations and you have ALOT of options. There's tons of different events and such that can happen too, spices it up nicely.  It ended up being pretty darned complicated, but I think it's well balanced out.  I havent seen any issues with the finished one myself, they seemed to iron out most of the issues by the time the base game released.  Though again, I cant really speak for the higher difficulties on the strategic side; I actually find it pretty tough on normal as it is.  But I do think they did a great job on it.  If it's been awhile, I think it's worth a go, definitely. To me it's a pretty great game overall and I never found it dull at any point.

Of course, it's an Arcen game, so the usual tough learning curve is there, heh.  Alot of experimenting is necessary.  Something tells me that you dont really mind that aspect though.

[Pumpkin]

I'm not particularly fan of the combat system. It's good but it doesn't really clic with me. (I often use the auto-resolve feature.) So maybe I'll be the other side of Misery's comment.

there's a ton of different ways to approach different situations and you have ALOT of options.
(...)
It ended up being pretty darned complicated
(...)
Of course, it's an Arcen game, so the usual tough learning curve is there, heh.  Alot of experimenting is necessary.  Something tells me that you dont really mind that aspect though.

I totally agree with this points. So much ways to reach the final goal, and so much ways to reach each sub-goals.
To sum up, the main goal is: every race in the federation; the sub-goals are, for each race: join us or drop dead. There is several ways to invite a race into the federation, there is several ways to kill a race, and each race have some ways impossibles and some more special ways, and sometimes there is ways that are just changed (for example: the Burlusts needs you to duel their warlord before you can regularly invite them). Then you add some random events (the biggest from the beginning, IMO, are the ark & mire: one big bonus and one big malus given to random races, and the "starting race" which will hate you from the beginning, but it can be chosen). In the end, with the combination of possibilities and the random events, the game is really rich and deep. As Misery said, "no surprises, it's an Arcen's game!" (well, not said this way, but I heard something like that )

I bet you know all that; I just wanted to add more explanations for the other folks reading this topic and having the same question as you.

Also, a player familiar with the system, with a clear goal and on an average difficulty (each player having its own average) can complete a game in one seat.
(Maybe this is just me, but once familiar with the interface, the flow of the game becomes very pleasant.)

[TheVampire100]

Zje battles are okay I think. The biss fights are probably the most interesing ones since they feel a lot like a puzzle that you have to solve (brute force won't help you there). But besides the boss battles the battles get very soon very repetive and boring. I skip them whenever I can, diplomacy is what makes this game shine for me. The interaction and personalities of the different races is very fascinating.

Also,t he game is a lot shorter than AI War. You can finish it pretty quickly if you know what to do. But probably you will mess a lot up the first time you play it. A common mistake I made in my early games: Let the Thoraxians do what the Thoraxians do.
Don't do that. Never. This is probably the most (intended) broken aspect of the game: Thoraxians are too op. The have waaaay too many citizens (which even increases over time) and their ground power is awefull strong. They don't need many soldiers on a planet, even a small number can eridicate an entire race. And the problem is, Thoraxians are the only race that don't take any prisoners, so if a planet gets captured by them the race is doomes. Don't try to use pirates as resistance fighters, Thoraxians are way too strong to get this going.
And with each planet they captured they get stronger because they have even more soldiers at their hand... claws... whatever.
It may sound aweful but the best thing you can do is poison there population. it will make them hate you but it's the better aspect instead of letting them become nigthmarish monsters of death and destruction.

[Misery]

Zje battles are okay I think. The biss fights are probably the most interesing ones since they feel a lot like a puzzle that you have to solve (brute force won't help you there). But besides the boss battles the battles get very soon very repetive and boring. I skip them whenever I can, diplomacy is what makes this game shine for me. The interaction and personalities of the different races is very fascinating.

Also,t he game is a lot shorter than AI War. You can finish it pretty quickly if you know what to do. But probably you will mess a lot up the first time you play it. A common mistake I made in my early games: Let the Thoraxians do what the Thoraxians do.
Don't do that. Never. This is probably the most (intended) broken aspect of the game: Thoraxians are too op. The have waaaay too many citizens (which even increases over time) and their ground power is awefull strong. They don't need many soldiers on a planet, even a small number can eridicate an entire race. And the problem is, Thoraxians are the only race that don't take any prisoners, so if a planet gets captured by them the race is doomes. Don't try to use pirates as resistance fighters, Thoraxians are way too strong to get this going.
And with each planet they captured they get stronger because they have even more soldiers at their hand... claws... whatever.
It may sound aweful but the best thing you can do is poison there population. it will make them hate you but it's the better aspect instead of letting them become nigthmarish monsters of death and destruction.

I personally tend to say the same thing about the combat in this game as I do about Bionic Dues, and Skyward Collapse: if it's being boring, it might be worth upping the difficulty.  I cant play this game's combat on low/mid difficulties.  I just cant.  Because being basically invincible is.... very dull.  It's more interesting when I have to actually dodge stuff and carefully use abilities. But on the default difficulty, NONE of that is necessary.  Vaguely aim, shoot whatever weapon you're holding, dont need abilities, absorb and stop enemy attacks using only the power of your face.  Not very interesting.  Seems to be a bit of an issue with some of Arcen's games in general, where low difficulties end up allowing the player to ignore or not even notice some of the game's mechanics that make it what it is.

Now, if it's a matter of some fights simply taking too long because things have tons of HP, that's another matter.  The new ships in particular may have ended up with a bit too much; I'm not sure.  It was all entirely based off of pretty much JUST my own testing, so... yeah.   Some numbers may have come out a bit skewed.  An HP decrease across the board may even be in order.  At least for the flagships and Obscura, anyway.

Forgot what else I was going to say.

....also, I'll agree, the Thoraxians are a bit of a mess, arent they?  I dont think they break the game or anything, but... they can be a bit too much of a pain, EVERY time.  It doesnt help that there's not enough ways to interact with them.  Usually the best method I found for dealing with them when they were getting snotty was to power up the Burlust a bit, and ask them to go to war with the Thoraxians.  The Thoraxians get very distracted that way, and the Burlusts get things to shoot at, it's a win-win situation.   I always wonder what in the heck the Burlusts do with their spare time when NOT shooting at things.

Beyond that though, I do think they could use with a couple of changes, at least a bit.  It'd be a bit more interesting if they werent ALWAYS exactly that sort of problem in every single playthrough.  I find it kinda annoying. 

But all of the rest of the diplomacy/political stuff more than makes up for it.  Though I do also think the Burlusts need a bit of an overhaul.... there just arent that many things you can DO with them.  I had mentioned that to Chris before, and he seemed to agree, but there wasnt nearly enough time to do anything with them; maybe in a future expansion.  Hopefully there will indeed be another.  That game, definitely deserves it, it does.  There's soooooo many things they could do with it from this point on.  I personally would love to see another couple of races added in, to shake things up.

[Kahuna]

Thabks guys. You convinced me to buy the expansion and give it a try this weekend.