posted 06-16-99 07:35 PM ET
It's cool how you can design your own units. It's not so cool that their armor decides what color they get. It's also not very cool (but probably realistic) that infantry with heavier weapons automatically looks like some sort of artillery-unit with that extra trackmounted weapon. It would be much cooler, and maybe more unrealistic, if infantry with big guns got to use some kind of power armor or exo-skeleton to wield it. Then they'd still be infantry 
It's way cool that no one kind of terraforming rules the game. I especially like the way forests becomes the best option for a balanced base, while farms and mines are sprinkled around depending on the terrain. Used to be the other way around in Civ, where forests quickly became chopped down and farmed... It's not so cool how regular roads are so broad and ugly that they dominate the squares that they are built in. But I used a combination of IrfanView and MS Paint to change that!
Next victim will probably be the ugly reddish terrain...if I can learn how to use a more advanced picture editor...already failed to alter a faction picture file 
It's kind of cool the way units faces the direction they are travelling in, but it's not cool that this makes it impossible (for me) to change the way they look. It can also make it hard to see just which kind of unit you have in a base when it's facing an unusual direction. In fact, the small array of units readily visible on a 'base screen' makes it harder to do anything with units in bases as well. Another annoying thing is the flag that is set to appear in the square next to the actual unit, although I suppose I've gotten used to it by now...
It's cool how extra production now carries over to the next item in line, but it's not cool how it is limited to 10 minerals. If I can get more than one tech in one turn, why should it be impossible to get more than one unit from a base in one turn? (Yeah, I know, "for the same reasons that I can't get more than one tech from one base in one turn".) It's still not cool how you have to scroll through all cities to check which ones might grow into a drone riot 
Factions are cool. It's cool that a faction can now surrender and serve as a puppet and/or buffer. It's not cool how Deirdre hates Free Market more than she likes the fact that none of my bases causes ecodamage and that most of my terraformed land consists of her beloved hybrid forest. Maybe she doesn't practice what she preach?
Landmarks are cool, as is the ability to use Supply Crawlers to work squares not worked by bases. Seabases are cool too, although in general I don't like building them.
I guess that was all the random opinions I felt like sharing right now 
RGE