1st game

I jumped into the multi-player head first last night with the help of a couple friends. One of them has played some and guided us along.

The tutorials did a great job of giving me the basics before we started. We then played a 3vs3 against comps on a 5vs5 map and that resulted in a game that took 4 1/2 hours. We decided to quit without finishing the mop-up since it was 5:30am by then.

I like the zoom feature very much. I've not figured out how to use the info on the left of the screen once it becomes cluttered, except to find a ship that I've lost track of. I had some trouble finding where my allies were in battle at when they asked for help.

I'm concerned that the research tree may contain a large number of items that will have little value, especially in the multi-player environment.

I can't wait to get a little more experience and give it a try against some human opponents. Hopefully, proper map selection will result in games that end in less than 2 hours. I don't think it is feasible to have most online games last any longer than that without someone having to quit.

Last note:

I was shocked to find that the game loaded and played with a video card way under spec. on a comp that has a 1.9GHZ Athlon processor. I had bought a new card for the game but decided to try it before installing the new card. I was slow to load but once the game started, everything seemed smooth.
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Reply #1 Top
the research tree generally doesnt come fully into use yet unless you rush tech (but thats why its there) also, try the selection based empire tree (its somewhere in options) I find it much easier to use, especially if you control-group your most used planets and fleets.

as to games not lasting more than two hours, there is always the ability to save and then reload later, or to have a group of people who have managed to get a big block of time free for a game
Reply #2 Top
"where my allies were when they called for help ..."

there is a notification system linked at the bottom left screen are. just click through the msg and when you see one labelled "allied planet/ fleet under attack" just press space. should get you to where you need to be.

there is also a ping feature your ally can use to mark a location for you.

yeah, performance is good on this baby. even my old Geforce 4400 managed to run it, through the planets became transparent.