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[Shadowlord]

You can buy a standard or minature mouse and plug it into your laptop. It'll make your life a whole lot easier. I assume, of course, that you have a free USB port. If not, you may have a problem. (Even a bluetooth mouse would work, but you would probably still need to plug the bluetooth dongle into a USB port, so...)
(There is a key to enter the research screen but I didn't notice any obvious keys to rotate it, select anything, or change the selection; of course I didn't hit every key on the keyboard, just the arrow keys and numpad keys - you probably don't have numpad keys anyways, but they didn't do anything in numpad mode.)

Also, yes, Anvilfolk. Instead of spending time building buildings on every planet you build whatever satellites (say, for defense) you may want, and spend your time on ship designing and selecting what to research, issuing ship orders, and combat. Ship construction is very quick as well, in your home planet and others which are similar in size and minerals once they're fully terraformed and industrialized (most colonies won't be as capable, and you have to defend them well).

The random events and encounters also make it far more interesting than most other games. Some of the most important or useful technologies are derived from some obscure locations in the tech tree that you would never think to research if you're only researching things that seem useful, though.

[forsaken1111]

I'd also have to point out that you can click and drag just fine with a touchpad. In fact most modern touchpads have a doubletap click and drag function where you tap twice and then drag as if the button were being held down.

[Shadowlord]

The point is that he has to do a gesture to do a right mouse click, which is unreliable, and that you have to right click and drag to rotate the research screen. Connecting an actual mouse is the most straightforward solution.

[Mini]

touchpad, one button, but I can make other buttons with gestures, which are unreliable so I can't really know if it's me making the wrong command, the game not registering or whatever.

I can indeed see why scrolling may be a problem then. Assuming you have a USB port or bluetooth, I recommend getting a mouse. (There are currently ones as cheap as $4.50 on Amazon, although I can't comment on their quality.) If you don't I'm sure there is a program out there somewhere that lets you bind keyboard keys (you do have one of those, right?) to mouse buttons.

Also, I tried getting into this at one point, but didn't have enough time. It seemed like the production aspect of the game was very streamlined/simplified from other 4x space games. Every planet does X production, which you could assign to build the planet infrastructure or something else, and that was it. You couldn't really build specific buildings or specialise planets. Is this right?

Planetary management is a lot simpler than a lot of other 4X games, sure. You did miss on a few points however: There are 4 things production can be used for, infrastructure construction, terraforming, ship building and wealth creation. Infrastructure can only be built up to 100 on each planet (although your homeworld starts with 200), and terraforming can (obviously) only go down to 0 climate hazard. Wealth creation is controlled by the trade<->production slider (which also controls how many trade routes a planet can support), and any left over production is automatically put into this (maybe at a lower rate, I can't remember). There are kind of buildings in space stations, they can only be built around planets, with one per a certain amount of population. They don't really have effects on specialising a planet, since there are IIRC only two that have an effect on the output of the colony, one increasing research directly and one increasing population (and therefore everything). Ship production does also cost money, so you're limited by a factor other than simply how much productions your planets produce in a single turn.

I'd also have to point out that you can click and drag just fine with a touchpad. In fact most modern touchpads have a doubletap click and drag function where you tap twice and then drag as if the button were being held down.

You need to use the right mouse button to pan the research screen.

Suddenly ninjas everywhere.

[forsaken1111]

The point is that he has to do a gesture to do a right mouse click, which is unreliable, and that you have to right click and drag to rotate the research screen. Connecting an actual mouse is the most straightforward solution.

Oh I agree with you entirely. He really should get a mouse. As the recommended input device for the two most common operating systems we use, its use would greatly facilitate the use of those operating systems. In fact I'd go so far as to say playing games without a mouse is something I would never do. Fighting with an interface isn't fun.

I'd also have to point out that you can click and drag just fine with a touchpad. In fact most modern touchpads have a doubletap click and drag function where you tap twice and then drag as if the button were being held down.

You need to use the right mouse button to pan the research screen.

Indeed, and I had missed that he has only one button. What a poorly designed piece of equipment... what kind of laptop is this?

[LoSboccacc]

it is a bootcamped mac.

fun thing is that I never had a problem before. maybe it was clunky at times, but I can do everything xcom offer, star rulers has neatly arranged buttons, towns and gnomoria runs ok. kerbal space program and aurora have everything accessible. even running with rifles is playable with the exception of granades.

[forsaken1111]

it is a bootcamped mac.

fun thing is that I never had a problem before. maybe it was clunky at times, but I can do everything xcom offer, star rulers has neatly arranged buttons, towns and gnomoria runs ok. kerbal space program and aurora have everything accessible. even running with rifles is playable with the exception of granades.

Well... you'd be well served by getting a small mouse to plug in. I did a quick search on amazon.com and found a lot of cheap mouses. Some even for... 1 cent? I don't know how they can sell a mouse for 1 cent but there you go.

http://www.amazon.com/Buttons-Notebook-Computer-Optical-Mouse/dp/B005HGG78Q

[motorbitch]

You couldn't really build specific buildings or specialise planets. Is this right?

you are right, and imo, this feature really is what makes sots. no more micro, no need to build that super computer on every planet....
youre free to focuss on the important decissions and to build and blow up space ships.

hated it at first though. made me put the game back in the shelf back then... there it rested a year, untill i got so bored i gave it a second try. and found myself suddenly love it.

[forsaken1111]

Even in SOTS2 the only specialization you really do is choosing what stations go in the system, and then specializing to one of the two classes of world, Gem world or Forge world iirc.

[Djohaal]

You couldn't really build specific buildings or specialise planets. Is this right?

you are right, and imo, this feature really is what makes sots. no more micro, no need to build that super computer on every planet....
youre free to focuss on the important decissions and to build and blow up space ships.

hated it at first though. made me put the game back in the shelf back then... there it rested a year, untill i got so bored i gave it a second try. and found myself suddenly love it.

Yes, that is true. The simplified planet interface coupled with the other everything the game offers is a rare case of good 'streamlining' on 4x games.

[Niveras]

One way or another, the game's system requirements specifically mention a three button mouse and a keyboard. That you manage to work around other programs (even games) that are mouse-driven (which may or may not list the same requirements for a mouse) is not really an argument for why a mouse-driven interface should work without it, or that the interface should have been designed in consideration for users without mice.

May as well complain that you can't boot a PC without ram or a keyboard.

[Aklyon]

Niveras pretty much nailed it.

[Sergius]

Remember the first Master of Orion? All the "management" in planets was merely prioritizing some bars, and eventually get to 100% in everything (factories, etc) for the current tech level. Then they had to ruin it forever in MoO2 by adding "buildings" a la Civilization, and each planet only having like 10 million people tops (that's about 1/3 of Peru) and then compounding by making you micromanage several planets per system.

[forsaken1111]

Took me a bit of searching to find this so I'm sharing it here. I wanted a 100% techtree mod which makes all techs in SOTS2 unlockable. I'd found a few before but they weren't very thorough and included techs that a faction could normally never have. This one only enables techs for each faction that they normally have some chance of researching. It won't give battleships to humans, for example, because humans cannot normally unlock battleships and it causes glitches if you do, seeing as there are no models for it iirc.

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[Lightning4]

Just as soon as the "all clear" was given to SotSII, a new expansion has been announced, called "The End of Flesh". And is releasing November 30th.
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/content.php?1173-Sword-of-the-Stars-II-Expanded-into-New-Enhanced-Edition

Brings a new race into the fold called the Loa, and adds what sounds like a good chunk of new content. They also tossed in all the Immersion DLC.

What's more, everybody who currently owns SotsII will be upgraded for free.