So far I'm loving the updates, though a bit disappointed that the wonders were removed. I'll admit, those were really overpowered (Especially, as a Gate lover, the Trade Everywhere/View Everything one), but are there any plans to bring back something similar in the future, perhaps as a large building on the planets themselves?
I do find it quite sad, though. Star Ruler 2 was a very playable early access upon release, and it's only gotten better (Mod support already? You guys are my heroes), but other early access games have had multiple months or even years, and still have very little to show for it (I'm looking at you, Rust and Maia).
Played a few hours in a single game, and the game itself tended to get a bit laggy framerate wise. 3 computer opponents and myself, on The Expanse map. Not something I'm too worried about, as the game got massive once I decided to ignore the enemy surrender agreement immediately after getting The Revenant, but it was fun.
I also noticed that a Scout I had built in the above game, much later, did not have the Explore option available.
I'm looking at making a minor mod that extends the Virile race trait to more than just the home world. It's nice as a primary base (Along with Pekelm and the extra food), but the effectiveness really falls off after early game. Perhaps making it cost more than one point, in that case.
The research system is nice change of pace from normal 4Xs, though I've noticed that researching, say, the Skip Drive in one location doesn't always unlock it at the other. Is this intentional, or does researching it twice give a greater effect or reduced cost on the item being researched? I feel like the tech tree could be separated a bit better, rather than having everything linked in the inbetweens.