Are hexes confirmed?  I thought Brad had said in the past that he didn't like hexes for 4X games.

All the more reason that I think Jon Shafer designed this game.  He loves hexes.

Looks like a good vision to me. enough said, unless any of you want to argue that squares are the way to go?

Nice catch, nomotog! 

Maybe it's just the low-res, but that screenshot really just looks like galciv2 with hexes.  

I'm more interested in seeing some of the newer UI stuff. To me the 'strategy map' part is a bit ancillary from a purely gameplay perspective. I need to interact with my empire, other empires, ships, planets etc. HOW I do that, can more or less make or break the game, even if the core concepts are solid. I mean I love SMAX, but lord the UI sometimes makes me want to burn the floppies.

I saw that image almost the first day i visited this site and assumed it was concept although now that its enlarged i do see some more info

that ship in the bottom right between Terran's and economics looks like a carrier from starcraft i think

but there's some kind of gas nebula on the bottom right corner that seems to be limiting the influence range from both the Terran and Alterran's.

as for the "economics star-base" it looks like its linked to the asteroid belt on the left in some form possibly a mining colony or using the asteroids to make components

while speaking of the asteroid belt the asteroid top right in that belt is highlighted red some kind of danger? its been identified as being on a collision course with earth?

Am I seeing things, or does it look almost 3D? It looks to me as if the view is like it would be if seen from a particular point in space, with what was a flat view GC2 curving away from the viewer as it approaches the edges of the view.