The End Game

I'm sorry. I don't have any information on the End Game phase. Um... my game only lasted a few turns past where I halted to write Chapter Three.

My first-ever game, on Normal difficulty, Large 2-arm. I took the first start it gave me. Senate Victory on turn 154. Let there be no doubt, the insecta are a fearsome genus. I had FOUR TIMES the population of my next nearest competitor.

Oh and just for grins and giggles, the Official Strategy guide lists the Klackons as the weakest race.

I did reload once. That was after I spent ten minutes in my first planetary assault staring at a black screen, because I wandered away from my TF's to look for where to send them. Well, I did find the target planet, but then trying to relocate my ships didn't work out, and I spent the whole ten minutes scrolling around looking for my forces, the target, or ANYthing beside black space... and failing! I read the little cheat sheet and saw that the mouse wheel, or keyboard + - keys, can be used to zoom the map in or out during combat. That only helps a little, though, as there IS NO WAY to click a button that recenters you on your forces. Blah.

The space combat takes some getting used to and has a few head-banging frustrations to the controls, but to some degree the answers to these are to "RTFM". If not the dubious game manual, then some tutorial or FAQ.

There's a conflicting interest, though. You need to zoom out to handle targetting, at least sometimes. Yet you need to be zoomed in more to see what is going on well enough to gauge the usefulness of your designs. The answer may be to zoom out only for orientation and long-range movement/recon, then zoom back in to watch the fighting.

Now this game with the fastest growing species won't be representative of all games, but... frankly, this game went faster than a game of Civ3, and that's even including the sizable time inflation of needing to figure out how to play.

Zed should be pleased with that aspect. Cy, also.

- Sirian

Thread posted - 27/02/02