I for one am getting oh so tired of people coming onto this forum and complaining "This game sucks because I bought it thinking it was something it's not." I've heard folks complain because "epic battles" are just one part of the overall game. I've heard people whine because there's only 20 population on a planet and how that's so unrealistic. I've heard the complaint that ships in this game don't have enough stats to them, or that the tech tree is too small and therefore the game is no fun.

I wish that folks would take a minute to inform themselves of what this game is all about as opposed to simply looking at it and forming an opinion based on what they thought the game was about. The goal of this game was to combine 4X and RTS. From what I understand the goal was NOT to provide a fleshed-out RTS or a deep 4X game, but to combine the main idea from both genres and do so in a cohesive and playable manner. And THAT is what this game is.

If you want a deep 4X game with a huge tech tree or designable ships or placeable structures then you need to go play a dedicated 4X game like GalCiv2 or MOO2.

If you want a RTS with loads of units that you can crank out from your base where you mine your resources with your peons and the point of the game is to micromanage your units to hell and back in order to win, go play a RTS; you'll like WC3 or StarCraft much better.

But if what you want is a small taste of both worlds combined then SoaSE is for you. Don't get upset because it's not the game you want it to be.

[/rant]