thanks for responding

when it come to building you own colonies on planets, it was purely optional, IG's system was even easier to use at big scale, you could sett it at auto build and focus, no micro managing involved unless you wanted to say plan your own defenses at some of your important planets. also the big fun part about it was that the battles did take place in those colonies, RTS style.

the tutorial part, it's not for me either, as I understand these kind of games now, but having a grate tutorial can make or brake a game for new comers.

voice over is not for everyone, sure. but for most and me, all this text on text on text gets boring topped on relaxing scifi tunes, and I get sleepy faster than I want.

having events that gives you quest, challenges and choices. for me made the game feel less repetitive, and each game felt more unique. for me I dont even read the text anymore on the events in GC, I just skip to the end to +1 diplomacy for all civilization, really not immersive.

From what I'm reading, it's got quite a few shortcomings in mechanical depth.  Jack of all trades, master of none?

The economy is apparently very simplistic despite having things like three separate research structures for different types of research, combat boils down to simple greater firepower wins mechanics with no counter playing or tactical capabilities to defeat superior forces.  It looks like GC3 actually has more in depth combat as a result of the behavioral effects of different loadouts, you can defeat a superior force by building a superior behavior into your fleet.

Only partially true. The economy wa no more simplistic then in GC. As for the combat in IG2 you could defeat superior forces. I assure you I did it quite a few times. Manual control gave you the edge sometimes.

I still vote for the GC idea of "no tactical" battles but I'm hoping it is better this time then it was in GC 2 where it was just rolls to hit and purely measured firepower vs hitpoints. So that knowing initial hitpoints and firepower of both fleets in GC2 you could predict the outcome of battle 100% just using a calculator. Plus it looked weird in the combat viewer when all the ships in your fleet were firing at single enemy ship regardless of range and line of sight to the target. After it was destroyed all your ships would move on to the next target blowing enemy ships one by one. The opposing fleet did the same. I always hated the look of it. Plus in GC2 battles there was no randomizer to simulate the unpredictable nature of a real battle.