Game is awesome. One thing I love is how they actually have multiple types of weapons in each of the three paths. Granted it is not the ridiculous breadth of weapons Sword of the Stars 2 had, but it is way better than Gal Civ's Laser 1 to 10, Missle 1 to 10, etc. I also like how point defense is actually something that requires a weapon slot to equip and actively shoots down missles instead of just being a passive resistance to missle damage number (again, Gal Civ).
I went Ballistics for this first game I am playing, and in addition to the standard Mass Driver to Rail Gun line, I also have a couple of levels of autocannons (shorter range, less accuracy, higher overall dps), the aforementioned point defense weapons (including a pretty sweet Flak Gun I just unlocked which is Large slot only but has better accuracy, longer range and higher damage than the standard PD line) plus another one that I saw but didn't research. While the combat is still very Paradox in that you throw your doom stack at the enemies doom stack and see whose is better, the mechanics behind the combat and what is going on is infinitely more transparent in this title. Both from the more detailed battle screen and from the pewpew lasers actively frying ships. I was worried as combat in their games is usually a few behind the scenes dice rolls and some other less than obvious mitigating factors but they absolutely nailed it. Also appreciation for the different space menaces giving you weapons tech options when you kill them (Void Cloud lightning and Crystalline Entity shard throwers, mining lasers).
And of course it has the good old Paradox make your own story element. While lacking in the fantastic absurdity of CK2 random character events, it is still really fun. I am still in my first game and essentially have become a hanger on to the now strongest empire. I started in a medium elliptical with 11 races. I got put in the galactic north east, closer to the center than the rim. Flanking me to the north east and east was two fallen empires who went right to the edge of the galaxy, so no go there. To my south was a dick head xenophobe who got the advanced start benefit that I chose for two random races, so no expansion there either. To my west was a guy I was about equal with who had another empire just to his west. The obvious plan was to make friends with his rival to the west and pincer him, expand from there. Unfortunately they went to war before I was ready and my neighbor won handily and became larger than I could now handle, with the other empire reduced to just his home system and a single frontier outpost. So I decided to become an enabler. Set up an embassy, research agreement, nonagression pact, rivalled my neighbor's rivals, everything to get in an alliance with him. And from there...we started to conquer. We now have almost the entire northern half of the map between our actual empires and vassals (plus those fallen empires on the rim). Next stop, galactic south. The AI is smart enough that all the warring empires to the south actually got over their problems and formed a federation to oppose us after we slapped one of them around a bit. That's pretty awesome, I love smart AI.
Game will only get better with expansions.
