As a founder I have gotten the to enjoy this game from the early beta all the way through to the current version and see the blood sweat and tears that have gone into it's development.
It has come a very very long way. It is hands down a better game now than it was when it launched. I know it will be a better game in two years than it is now.
However... it really feels like it is still a work in progress.
It seems that the AI is not able to do all the things that Brad would like it to do.. so rather than script the AI and make it just do x tasks... It feels like Stardock has decided to build roadblocks for the players. These artificial roadblocks often make no sense and really pull me out of the game.
Things that are good... The introduced crisis things. Chose one of three things... choose again... have consequence. This is AWESOME.
Why are they so rare? these should happen far more often as they make me feel like I am actually leading a civ rather than just gaming a game.
Things that are MEH The United Planets is still really dull... there still seems to be no penalty for defying a vote, and it does not meet very often (even when set to frequent) The game could really be improved with just scripting for more UP meetings....
The Senate votes for my own civilization. So there are the Loyalists, and the other parties.. what do the other parties want? What can I do to improve things? Seriously the entire population votes mechanic is simply a gauge on how well you are managing your morale and has no actual gameplay use...
Things that are really needing more work.
So I went and played a game of Sid Meyer's Alpha Centari... yesterday....
Why more than 15 years after that game do we have a 4x with less intuitive and useful government system? the various government choices have very little impact on game play... they ONLY seem to exist to be roadblocks on how fast a player can expand... this needs work.
I'm going to play a few more games and write up more thoughts but really, right now the way the government choices work does not add fun to the game... it only adds an additional mechanic.
oh... and Commonwealths make it impossible to win the Influence Victory btw... A forced game mechanic should not prevent one of the primary means of victory in the game...