"E_net4" said: Hide your credit card! ...Or stop asking your parents, case dependant. I've got my own. And I know all necessary data by heart. :/
"MageKing17" said: I've heard of that. Is it good? I didn't play it for very long yet, but it seems massively solid. And it's not a side vs. side balanced game like most RTS' (like Starcraft) - you versus a vastly overpowered enemy. The goal is not to build an empire, but to survive (and eventually drive off the occupant).
At the beginning, you're mostly being ignored, with occasional waves of attackers; the more you conquer, the stronger you get, the more effort the AI (story: AI became evil; killed off people; people fight back - there's also no vs. multiplayer, only co-op, which fits thematically) spends on eliminating you.
It definately plays more variedly than SoaSE, and a lot more strategically; I think *you* might like it, and unless you've got very little time (they say an average game lasts roughly 8-12 hours) you should probably grab the demo. And the game is criminally cheap.
Common complaints include randomness; Out of the roughly 30 ship types, during one campaign, you will unlock only up to five random ones (plus one chosen at start, plus the three basic ones). The philosophy behind that choice convinced me, though; Like a real life officer, you can't really be picky about your troops when you're on the verge of destruction. And you unlock these extra ship types by conquering enemy advanced science labs, so the randomness is justified.
Then, research is the only limited resource - 3.000 points per planet (roughly 1-3 low-level techs), of which there are 80 on the standard map. Other than that there's the standard metal and crystal (pretty much like SoaSE - collected from special nodes), and energy (can be built anywhere, but a high concentration of generators decrease efficiency). Energy can't be stored.
Then, the "population cap" is not a global one, but per ship type; You can have, say, 300 fighters, 300 Tier II fighters, and 300 Tier III fighters. This is to force you to use everything you have - because 300 additional tier I ships are always useful, even if they are vastly outdated. Also an interesting choice that sets the game apart from others. In addition, it makes conquering the advanced labs VERY important, as it not only makes your army more diversed, but increases it's size.
There's a lot of things like this; The only way to really get a feel for how it is is to play it yourself. :>
I'd recommend to start playing WITHOUT either expansion, though. There's enough things you need to grasp when first playing even without all the extra awesomeness.
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