Part II of my observations
1. Humans, Earth starting planet -- just noticed that it is a class 12, but only 11 tiles are available (including initial colony) -- definitely missing one tile.
2. Auto-fleet creation? I had a sniper enter the hex with another, and the two automatically formed into a fleet. Not sure this is a good idea. However, I did note that if one ship is still under move orders (that is, if I've told it to go to a hex, so it will continue to move at the end of the turn) and I move another ship into its hex, they do not auto-form despite bottom-left showing "Stacked Ships" and "defending fleet."
3. Fleet/ship movement bug -- playing with the above auto-fleet creation, in testing this I moved a ship (A) into the hex with another ship (
that had destination orders. Ship A still had movement points available as well. The bottom-left window said A and B were a fleet, but when I continued to move ship A, it continued individually, leaving B behind. I then moved B onto the hex with A, hit the space bar (to end movement) but the "Idle Ship" warning (bottom-right) would not continue. In other words, I could not end the ship's turn without actually moving it unless I manually created a fleet. The ship-end-turn spacebar doesn't seem to be working correctly in this instance. I had trouble repeating this until I did this: moved A a distance requiring multiple turns, and made sure it ended turn on B (A still had the future movement path line), then "Idle Ship" warning appeared (bottom-right) for B, but spacebar did not end B's turn. This is repeatable.
3. Logistics -- I do like the fact that initial logistics seems to allow for larger fleets at the start (two snipers only make 2/10 at start). This makes sense, as small fleets would be possible for a space-faring empire, even when first expanding.
4. Economics -- this seems to be better balanced. In GC2 I was always struggling with cash at start, which seemed inconsistent with the concept of an expanding empire. Expansion doesn't occur when bills can't be paid, so I'm liking the ability I have to at least moderately continue without running in the red continually.
5. Graphics note -- I was zoomed out at turn-end so I was seeing symbols of ships (vs actual images), but an AI ship came into view and shifted from symbol to image on its last hex move (while my own ship was still a symbol). When I zoomed in to shift all on-screen items to images, then back out to symbols, the AI ship shifted to symbol as well.
6. Eject ship -- this is an option for "launching" a ship from orbit. Perhaps a better term? Eject has a suggestion of self-destruct to me. Maybe Launch would be better? Other ideas, anyone?
7. Another spacebar bug -- in bottom-right, I have "Idle Colony" showing. However, when I click on a ship to move it (ship appears in selection window, bottom-left) and hit space bar, I pop into the colony management window.
8. Colony management options -- when I research advance to a new level of building (i.e., Trade Centers now available, replacing Market Centers), the old and new facilities are both listed. This may become very cumbersome when many facilities are available. Will you have an "Old Buildings" tab option as in GC2?
9. Moved a constuctor onto a Starbase, but there were no modules to build (I've noticed they auto-build at this point, which is fine), so the Constructor docked (it appears this is what occurred). When I click on the SB, the "defending fleet" note appears in the info window, and when I click on the constructor icon, three options are available: Manage Fleet, Eject Ship, and Ship Details. Manage Fleet shows the SB window, but the Constructor is not listed. Ship Details does nothing (coming soon? If so, perhaps grey that out for the time being like you have in other instances?). Eject Ship works fine.
10. SB window (when I click on a SB). The default pic is the SB over a planet -- perhaps this should be contextual, so if it's in space, no planet shows?
