I'm pretty excited about SoaSE, as it is aiming for robust multiplayer play and I've longed for that since MOO2.

However, I'm finding myself getting more frustrated with playing the demo than actually having fun.

The main problem is the map interface.  When I start up the demo everything seems fine.  When I push the mouse up to the edge I go "up" and when I push it to the lower edge I go "down" but then after awhile this gets screwy.  Eventually when I have the map go up, it no longer goes up, instead it goes up at an angle.  Likewise this happens when I'm going down.

I should add that I try and orient my viewpoint so that I'm looking down on the 2d galactic plane that, just as if I was viewing this game as a big boardgame.

Actually, that is my second problem with the game.  The overall 3d interface.  It would be nice if there was some way to just lock the entire game to a 2d axis.  Zooming in and out from a birds eye view is fine.  I don't really care about the 3d graphics and I keep the zoom level so that all I see are the icons.  It would just be nice if the interface could be isolated enough in the options that I can play this as just a zoomable boardgame, but with no tilt or angling of the camera.  I'd much rather have this feel like any other RTS, where I just scroll around the map to whatever I want to look at rather than suddenly be thrown off by some odd 3d angle.

My wife loves sci-fi empire games, she still plays Alpha Centauri, and we'd like to play this together, but right now the 3d interface is more of a chore than a perk and I know my wife would have even less patience than I with a swirling 3d enviroment.