here are some thoughts from my first playthrough, I only got to half the second era:
first of all, I like the overall feel. races are interestingly different, and have distinct enough attack patterns. their attacks are a bit ineffective, but I think it's needed - one neighbor had triple the planets, the hive had hundreds, anyone of them could had me killed instantly - until a better reason for people not killing you can be found. Interface is clunky as hell, but won't comment unless you want me to, since you asked for gameplay feedback. I liked the fleet management tho, very nice after I got the hang of it.
the major gripe I have is that there is not much direction. even if the scenario is start of an empire, you get dozen of planets and everyone around you is screaming murder. It seems the game is set up this way because of the way maintenance and other empire soft limit works, which is mainly by planets, which would make impossibly hard to play a single planet start. But this way you start surrounded by races you don't know and don't care: there aren't enemies you grow to hate, there aren't friendlies you grown to trust, and council don't really offer any advice. even a 'x is preparing an attack' instead of raw diplomacy numbers would go a great way in helping reading the situation, more than the 'friend enemy' map display, as everything there is red.
now, random gameplay thoughts:
I colonized a planet one off from my empire, got credits deducted but I preferred a warning message: cannot colonize this planet because it's not connected before I paid, as I didn't know at that point.
repairing ship is incredibly slower compared to building new ones. I had plenty minerals so I am unsure by what's causing that, it can be work around easily by disbanding squadrons with loads damage and creating them anew, but that'd be micromanaging. also repairs seems to limit new ship production, is that intended?
the way combat is resolved allow you to send reinforcements, don't know if it's intended but if you get a neighbouring planet fleet to move into an attacked planet it is taken in account in battle from turn one. that seem a little op. I'd prefer to see the 'x is attacking message' one turn before they arrive, and then I have to decide. especially if the system on the other end was in full visibility condition (close to an empyre system with a garrison fleet)
I'd like to see some bonus for squadron of the same fleet operating together. just to have an incentive to keep fleet organized. also, why isn't there any fleet automation? like, defend border planets or prepare to attack planet x
stormtrooper are quite slow to capture planets. one enemy required more than 50 turns to conquer. that seem excessive, as it also binds your fleet to the planet for that long and make the whole game feel like trench warfare. orbiting fleet size should matter more and conquering needs to be tuned down a little imho. but the real problem is that I have very little control on how fast/slow the process goes.
I'll take time to dig more into the game and into research, for more detailed considerations. I have plenty about the ux tho, so let me know.
I'll leave one more consideration: the game needs some more drama. you lose and build hundreds ships, auditions never pose hard questions, there aren't much to do overall in combat, management(duh) or diplomacy so the game needs something to break 'auto' 'auto 'auto' 'end turn' cycle monotony.
all in all, 7/10 would back again - it kept me interested for a lots of turns, and wanting for more.
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Topic: Stellar Monarch - 4X, turn based, space empire builder with no micromanagement (Read 45031 times)