Various programs exist to upgrade
your ships, each adding separate commands to the remote control menu for navigation, trading and combat.
Number two,
you can also own factories... That's right, the socialist space gamer may control the means
of production. They're incredibly expensive, and require a considerable amount of forethought (not to
mention positioning) but you can do it. And then you can put your picture on
them.
You'll have to plug away at the game for many hours
before you can expect to try your hand at factory ownership though, and you'll
need a whole fleet of merchant vessels just to keep one factory happy and well
fed.
Number 3, the dynamic (space) economy
is done right. While on the surface things appear to be fairly typical (you
know, you buy things, look for the best price to sell them, sell them there,
rinse, repeat) you will quickly realize that there is a LOT going on under the
surface. For one thing, every trade item and product (with the exception of the
ships themselves) is produced from a factory, and each of these products or
commodities depends on other products or commodities.
Prices of a given good don't just rise and fall based on how
much you buy and sell, they change depending on the supply
level of the materials needed to make that good. This leads to the final joy
of the economic simulation in this game… All the transportation of material is done
in real time by real AI driven ships. No magical transportation of
trade goods here.
Each factory retains a retinue of cargo ships which are
constantly transporting goods here and there. This means, if you like, you can blockade systems
to cut off competitor's shipping lanes, ambush vunerable freighters, or even just nip in
front of that impending shipment of silicon wafers to grab a better
price for yourself.
All the stations and factories (as far as I'm aware)
are destructible also, though you will need some heavy firepower to actually
take one out.
Number four, the graphics and art are
rather nice. Lots of shiny spacecraft, over 70 unique designs which use bump mapping
in abundance. Each ship has a different cockpit design which can be
panned around with the view keys, adding a nice touch of
atmosphere.
Speaking of
atmosphere, it's abundant in the graphical treatment of the space sectors. They
are graphically diverse and often spectacular, with nebulae and alien planets
galore.
Better still, instead of all celestial objects simply
being part of the background as was the case in EVE Online , many are actual 3D objects which
can be flown to (and through in the case of nebulae) which
is a nice touch. The varying architecture of the six races is also
very well done, with the stations and ships (all unique to each race) reflecting the
nature of their makers.
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