I know it's not really designed to be fun yet, but - except for all the stuff I haven't figured out yet - my first look was rather enjoyable: the first anomaly I came across turned into a working usable ship.
However, I simply don't understand why the user interface was changed so dramatically. In one instance, I clicked on a production item and an in your face picture of it popped up; but neither clicking on the picture or the item again dismisses the pop-up. I ended up using the <esc> key.
Then again, it's been over a years since I last played Gal Civ II and I am extremely rusty. Maybe that's a good thing?