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[Anvilfolk]

Well, from a couple of hours of browsing through my galaxy and getting acquainted with the game, here's what little I can say.

It appears that logging in three times a day vs one will give you a pretty negligible advantage. I started with geological (i.e., mining and so forth), and I've ordered some surveys so I can find new mining spots. They take 40 days in-game days, which equates to 80 real-time hours. And THEN you need to set up mining operations. There's not much else I can do except RP with the rest of the galaxy at the moment

It seems like you can still enjoy this without paying, although it appears it WILL be a limiting factor. Just roleplay a house that has very narrow interests economically, and then be active in galaxy politics, whether publicly or... less... publicly.

You appear to be able to change your homeworld in your galaxy, though it's an expensive process, but not change galaxies. Also, like someone else said, it's frowned upon to have OOC ties to other people.

I'm already having a ton of fun thinking of how to respond to messages I've gotten, and to start some innocent schemes to make the galaxy more interesting

[Akura]

At first the idea of having such limited features as a free player turned me off, but if you say it's still able to be fun, I'll take your word for it. Since I'd be locked in, I have some questions:

A) Can you change your homeworld? If so, do we have some sort of B12 area going on?
B) If we're working together, what spheres are other people taking and what do we need? Alternatively, if we're not, what is in demand and reasonably fun to play/profitable?

I've been looking through the features, and the game seems designed to prevent groups of people from outside the game from joining up and ganging up on everyone else. I guess it makes sense. I know that the server is randomly assigned because of this, and to prevent general crowding on one server, and cannot be changed. As for changing the homeworld, I dunno.

Also, it doesn't seem like it's all that limited for free players. Someone already mentioned that on one server, one of the top 3 is free player. So far, it seems all you're limited from is just more than two spheres(also limited by your status anyway) to work with, but I think you can change your spheres. Looks to me that this is not pay2win.

I'll most likely pass on it, though. I think I lack the RP skills needed for it. If I do, though, I might take up the Psionics sphere. Profit from selling psychic services, plus espionage bonus.

[Anvilfolk]

I decided to go for a rough-hewn, slightly tactless introverted house. My motto is "Family, Faith, Fortitude", so very steadfast and believe in hard work, do not believe in loans or credit, that kind of stuff. Some friendly bloke sent money my way, but I've already responded that it WILL be returned to him, eventually. But House Underfolk shall not be the subject of charity! Through hard work we shall accomplish.

My main sphere is geological, i.e. mining (DF much?). I'm having a pretty fun time fleshing them out.

[Kaitol]

I'm mildly interested in playing.

How viable would a free account with espionage/psionics be? I've always wanted to play a game where my mainline was selling intel and associated services.

Also, is membership a onetime fee or a subscription. I could possibly afford a small onetime cost but a regular subscription, even a small one, really isn't viable at the moment.

[Karlito]

Probably not too viable without unless you could get quite a few Houses buying your services. Neither psionics or espionage will make a lot of money on it's own.

Membership is subscription based, £3 for 30 days or £8 for 90 days.

[Zangi]

At first the idea of having such limited features as a free player turned me off, but if you say it's still able to be fun, I'll take your word for it. Since I'd be locked in, I have some questions:

A) Can you change your homeworld? If so, do we have some sort of B12 area going on?
B) If we're working together, what spheres are other people taking and what do we need? Alternatively, if we're not, what is in demand and reasonably fun to play/profitable?

I've been looking through the features, and the game seems designed to prevent groups of people from outside the game from joining up and ganging up on everyone else. I guess it makes sense. I know that the server is randomly assigned because of this, and to prevent general crowding on one server, and cannot be changed. As for changing the homeworld, I dunno.

Also, it doesn't seem like it's all that limited for free players. Someone already mentioned that on one server, one of the top 3 is free player. So far, it seems all you're limited from is just more than two spheres(also limited by your status anyway) to work with, but I think you can change your spheres. Looks to me that this is not pay2win.

I'll most likely pass on it, though. I think I lack the RP skills needed for it. If I do, though, I might take up the Psionics sphere. Profit from selling psychic services, plus espionage bonus.

In its favor, having extra spheres does not really matter, unless you are trying to be big like some of the more established or grow faster I guess.  But you still need cash infusions from an older house...  (to grow faster that is.)

Homeworld can be changed.  Do not worry about that.

I and most veteran players recommend against taking Mercantile and Transport.  Most if not all planetary random/negative effects really hurts Mercantile and Transport spheres... almost exclusively.  It is a heck of a lot of work for not so great gain.  If you insist on taking Mercantile, seriously, I insist you put money up for subscription, cause it opens up some ease of use features for that sphere.  You will sorely need it.

'Coming in to conquer the universe' is not so easy here.  You have many old established houses in each universe who may have an iron grip, both politically and militarily... and may be quite resistant to upstarts.  Plus, it is going to take you real life months to be able to build up enough to even challenge the middle level houses.
The joining in one of the random universe is also something to prevent this.

Being profitable, depends really, spheres can be saturated on a per planet basis.  You may find some other houses building the same type of facilities on your planets.  There will come a point that it will cut into your profits.  Even having multiple same buildings of your own, you will see yourself cutting into your own profits.

(This game does kinda suffer from the old houses owning many things and can make things move syndrome.  Growth is at a snails pace without extra money from older houses.  Though, it may in part also be because many spheres are also saturated/monopolized.)

[Kaitol]

Not too viable as in I will run out of cash quickly and be broke for all of eternity, or not too viable as in it will just take a long ass time to build my infrastructure and customer base up.

[Zangi]

Not too viable as in I will run out of cash quickly and be broke for all of eternity, or not too viable as in it will just take a long ass time to build my infrastructure and customer base up.

Most likely, long ass time to build. 
'Customer base' depends on the players/houses in the galaxy, the frequency of cloak and dagger ops... Minnows and lesser houses don't really have much to spend on espionage.  While bigger houses may either be continuing to grow or simply have no need/care to screw around with offensive ops.  Would not be too surprising if middle of the road houses do target minnows and lesser houses, as they have the least means of recourse and their budget is not exactly flexible when it comes to counter-ops... so the least chance of getting caught.

[Kaitol]

Well I decided to try it and my Homeworld is a small arid with a small pop. So if I took psionics for my starting sphere it would really suck because of the low pop... Gah. I really wanted to specialize in espionage. Geology or trade would do much better here...

EDIT: Although someone has a monopoly on precious metals for both geology AND trade so that might cramp geology. Man I wish you could randomize your homeworld like 3 times for free like your House.

Editedit: Fuck it. I'll just start with psionics. If it fails it fails. Oh well.

How many people generally end up in a galaxy? Right now I've got less than 30 in mine.

[Chattox]

So this looks pretty awesome; what kind of investment of time and effort is expected of you for this game? I'd love to get me some intergalactic diplomacy but I really don't have days on end to devote to it

[Anvilfolk]

From a gameplay point of view, it's been 6 real-life days since I started playing, and so far I've essentially executed about 6 actions, which can be done with a few mouse-clicks. I sent out some geological surveys and ordered a couple of buildings built. That was it.

Now, I've spent quite a few hours engaging in diplomacy though, mainly because I'm RPing a House that doesn't like to owe favours, so when the stronger houses sent me the "usual cash" that is given to startups, I sent back messages engaging in a discussion of how these could be compensated for by me.

The pace is pretty slow, so you shouldn't worry about not having time. You can spend days without playing - it's definitely not the kind of game where the more you play the bigger of an advantage you get. This happens, but only marginally. That's not what the game is about, as far as I've understood it so far

[Ghazkull]

Yeah its a very slow game, it took me two years of getting where i went...but thats because i mostly refuse dmoney from big houses...although there are many houses which get ridiculous money infusions and thus end up on place 3 or 4 in just a week.

War is pretty much a bit shitty as a small house. The Big Ones are always waiting for something to happen and as soon as you enter a war with a similiar small House you can expect it to escalate into Galactic Civil Wars because Houses will array themselves suddenly on both sides and your little 4 Company Skirmish turns into the Reenactment of Ypern with dozens fo Legions fucking each otther up while you wait for it all to blow over, so yeah as a Minnow or Lesser you can save the money of Military and Espionage.

[Chattox]

Just started in the transportation sphere; oh god what do I do :/

[Zangi]

Just started in the transportation sphere; oh god what do I do :/

Find another planet, build transport facility there.  Connect to transport facility you already have at your homeworld/starting world.

Sacrifice to your Gods so that the plague does not come to either of those planets.

[Anvilfolk]

Yeah its a very slow game, it took me two years of getting where i went...but thats because i mostly refuse dmoney from big houses...although there are many houses which get ridiculous money infusions and thus end up on place 3 or 4 in just a week.

War is pretty much a bit shitty as a small house. The Big Ones are always waiting for something to happen and as soon as you enter a war with a similiar small House you can expect it to escalate into Galactic Civil Wars because Houses will array themselves suddenly on both sides and your little 4 Company Skirmish turns into the Reenactment of Ypern with dozens fo Legions fucking each otther up while you wait for it all to blow over, so yeah as a Minnow or Lesser you can save the money of Military and Espionage.

That this happens is pretty nifty. I mean, it's not too far from what we've seen happen since WW2, though conflict generally doesn't escalate to the big powers' homeland, and usually takes place in restricted puppet warzones. It'd be interesting to see this recreated as well, rather than as an excuse to go all out against someone completely different.