Having watched the whole video and looked at the screens I think this deserves way more recongintion than it has. At the very least the battle part seems nicely polished. I would like to know more about the non-combat bits though, most notably economy and ship design. Also rather sad about not being able to try it right now (middle of night on ipad)
BTW, iPad version is not very far away from its release...
As to other game parts:
When you start a new game you can either select some existing galaxy, or generate a new one - Spiral of different types, elliptical, rectangular or of some exotic shape. In can be tiny, just several stars, or have thousands of stars.
![](http://i1335.photobucket.com/albums/w670/ufnv/th_ScreenShot2014-08-27at155351_zps6ab84b10.png)
![](http://i1335.photobucket.com/albums/w670/ufnv/Remember%20Tomorrow/th_ScreenShot2014-03-18at225617_zps5bf64821.jpeg)
![](http://i1335.photobucket.com/albums/w670/ufnv/th_ScreenShot2014-08-27at155427_zps0d65e146.png)
Galaxy is 3D, scalable and rotating, but stars are generally placed in a way they do not cover each other when viewing from the top. Basic space travel mechanics is via star lanes.
There are several types of minerals to mine, and a number of planet types, each with its own properties and different requirements for colonisation.
![](http://i1335.photobucket.com/albums/w670/ufnv/th_ScreenShot2014-08-27at155811_zps35e6c67c.png)
When you colonise a new world you can either handle it manually, or set one of the auto-economy types for all construction (except for spaceships) to be handled by AI.
![](http://i1335.photobucket.com/albums/w670/ufnv/th_ScreenShot2014-08-27at170901_zps0bd5bd31.png)
Then you can build your space fleets.
![](http://i1335.photobucket.com/albums/w670/ufnv/th_ScreenShot2014-08-27at155514_zps4e76e074.png)
Spaceships can have their custom design. Basically, you just have an empty hull with space on several decks where you can place different equipment modules.
Small fighter:
![](http://i1335.photobucket.com/albums/w670/ufnv/th_ScreenShot2014-08-27at160422_zpsf0b8c728.png)
One deck of a strike battle cruiser:
![](http://i1335.photobucket.com/albums/w670/ufnv/th_ScreenShot2014-08-27at160540_zpsf932df02.png)
A list of available hulls plus one deck of a carrier cruiser (zoomed out):
![](http://i1335.photobucket.com/albums/w670/ufnv/th_ScreenShot2014-08-27at160612_zps5a77a484.png)
It is up to you whether you'd like to have a slow heavy armorer cruiser packed with all top available guns, or a fast carrier, whose main weapon is its fighter fleet.
![](http://i1335.photobucket.com/albums/w670/ufnv/Remember%20Tomorrow/th_ScreenShot2014-01-24at221047_zps3fcd02c8.jpeg)
There are now 9 different races in the game, each with its own spaceship designs. Spaceships vary in size from a small fighter to a huge dreadnought.
In total there are 12 ship types for each race.
Diplomacy includes all usual 4x game features - you can make or receive offers, create alliances, ask for help, trade, etc.
![](http://i1335.photobucket.com/albums/w670/ufnv/th_ScreenShot2014-08-27at155611_zps3df5db15.png)
![](http://i1335.photobucket.com/albums/w670/ufnv/th_ScreenShot2014-08-27at155624_zps27b2da2d.png)
Espionage is planned but not implemented yet.
Science mechanics is a bit not usual for a space strategy.
There is no tech-tree in a common sense, instead you can distribute your "science points" (generated by laboratories and other scientific buildings) between four fundamental sciences - physics, math, chemistry, biology.
Once you advance enough, some "Applied sciences" become available and you can spend points to research cold fusion, xenobiology, antimatter, etc.
Advancing in applied sciences, you get specific technologies, like new kind of weapons, new generators, new ship types and new buildings. And nearly each technology requires research in several applied sciences, so there is no way you can set all you scientists to research one specific technology from a tech-tree.
![](http://i1335.photobucket.com/albums/w670/ufnv/th_ScreenShot2014-08-27at155543_zpsd3db8440.png)
When you fleet meets enemy one, the game instantiates a tactical combat mode.
There you can control you ships by issuing them orders (like attack that ship/group of ships, escort this ship, fly to that point, wait, form combat order, etc.).
Simple orders (attack, goto, escort) are issued just by clicking mouse button, more complicated orders (return to hangars, no not use torpedoes, make a specific formation, etc) can be commanded using a menu while the game is on pause.
The battle engine is "2.5D" on a cycled plane, zoomable and scrollable.
The engine itself handles several thousand ships in one battle, each with its own AI.
I was personally executing a number of 5K vs 5K battles in testing purposes, looks like iPad should handle this, not talking about modern PCs.
In real life however I rarely saw more than 1K ships battle, as it is already quite a big fleet that requires appropriate economical power to upkeep
There are three basic weapon classes in a battle - laser weapons, impulse (energy) weapons and missiles. Each class having a number of different weapons with its own strong and weak sides. No universal big gun.
Also there are different armours, force fields, vectoring engines, missile traps, gravitational jumpers, etc.
Combining with different ship types and tactics, this gives quite a big space for variations - no universal "best" ship design, or "best" fleet.
You can win the game via domination, or diplomacy.