I'm aware that the + button increases game speed, and I'm aware that the developers have mentioned the possibility of adding a "Faster" game speed in a coming release (maybe the next release). That's great, and thank you very much for listening to the few of us who have mentioned it. In addition to reiterating this request, I'd like to bring up an important reason why I think this will make game play a lot more approachable and fun for a wide array of current and future players. Note that I totally understand that a faster speed is probably absurd for multiple human players in a game.

I think a very fast speed, such as the "fast forward" employed in Homeworld: Cataclysm, is the best way to learn the specifics of the game. Today I learned all about how Allegiance works, and did so by getting my butt repeatedly kicked in on the Gaian Crescent map. You start the map hemorrhaging money, and it took me hours of trial and error and several restarts before I got to the point where I could get my first asteroid before my opponent had the rest of the map populated. In retrospect my error was minor (I needed a capital planet).

This is only the most recent example of how I've needed to learn through trial and error. Frankly the majority of posts here seem to be in another language because they clearly understand the game far more than I've been able to get in a week, including reading the manual and playing the tutorials. In lieu of a story mode, I've been playing the 1 on 1 maps in order, and trying to pick up an Achievement each time. I never get to a point where I'm seeing the later level techs, and there is no way in heck I have the resources to experiment in the late game. And there is no way in heck I'm going to devote an evening to a huge map until I feel like I know what I'm doing.

I suppose I could pin my enemy and try out the rest of the tech tree, but the problem there is that the benefit from whatever tech I research is artificial since my enemy is pretty much beaten anyway. If we could get through games faster, we could see a lot more of the full depth of this game, because it would be feasible to play more of them.

As it stands, I can't get through more than 2 games per day, and that's if I completely blow off work; tomorrow is Saturday, so the only way I could play 2 games is if I make my kid watch so much Sesame Street it would border on child abuse.

So a fast forward button, please. For the children.