Should I get the expansion?

It's great. But if you only managed to play into 20 turns on Dreadlords, maybe it isn't for you. And what do you mean there wasn't any espionage in Dreadlords, certainly there was. No actual spies, but there was a slider that you could adjust for each race. Now it's a bit more direct, you need to actually place agents on a planet in order to get your espionage levels up.

As for what's good? Asteroid Fields are a great addition. Even lowly planets can become industrial powerhouses now. Or you can redirect distant fields to planets just starting out, giving them a boost to their production.

You also need special tech to colonize certain planets, like radiated ones, heavy gravity, toxic etc. It puts a whole new slant to the colonization rush. If another race beats you to the tech you need for a key planet you wanted, you find it necessary to suddenly change your overall strategy.

Super abilities adds a whole new level to the personalities of the various AIs. They each have their own distinct specialties now. And they're also alot smarter than they were in the default game, more of a challenge. Plus there's two more races in the game.

Ship designing has become much easier now. You can save basic hulls as templates and access them later to use for actual ships. Plus there's alot of new hulls/structures to work with to create truly unique designs.

You can now create your own custom opponents, giving them unique personalities and abilities, as well as ship styles. You can even edit the default races if you like, changing the way they respond in game. So you're not limited to the default races anymore; the sky's the limit as to how many you can include in the game. Of course you can still only have up to 9 at any one time.

The bad? The game is a bit more demanding on your computer system than before. But not alot, if you have a fairly good computer there won't be any problems. It's just people with low end systems that aare having issues.

And of course, as with any new release, there are a few bugs to be worked out. Nothing really gamebreaking for the most part though. And one major patch has already been released, with a couple of additional updates after that. And it sounds like the next patch will be a very good one. The devs are actively seeking player's input as to what they'd like to see. So I expect we'll see some pretty major additions next time.

Hello,

Personally, I think that overall, DA is a great expansion. Everything that I would expect is in there. I would generally recommend it.
However, you did mention espionage, which I'm not totally sure I like. The espionage slider has been replaced with another espionage slider. The money you send into Espionage (as a whole now, not my race) builds spies. You then place a spy on an enemy planet. This is the only way to collect info on teh enemy and disrupt a specific imporvement. Furthermore, whenever a spy is placed, the player/AI is notified that an enemy spy is operating and can use on of thier spies to take it out. In my games, spies I place are usually killed in 1-2 turns. So Other than a temporary disruption, I learn nothing of the enemy, and it has no real benefit. I build a few spies to "defend" my planets and that's it. Not to mention, there are now loopholes to the "Our espionage level needs to be ADVANCED to see this info..." msg's, espionage as a whole semms nerfed.

Everything else, is definietely imporved. The addition of Asteroids adds some flair to the game (that the AI can handle). Better graphics (especially inteh ship desgniner) make the game feel a bit more immersive. The AI is definetely improved. New events (Including Mega events, which are designed to mess up your game).


The good:
-Graphics
-AI
-Tech tree is easier to read
- New Elements (Asteroids, Planet restrictions, races)

The Bad (or not so good)
-Espionage
-Diplomacy and tech trading has become a little funky
-Same with comabt system
In regards to diplomacy and combat, the devs have been working on them with the new patch (and in future patches too, I would assume), so they are bound to get better

That's not always the case. I had one game where the Terrans did nothing about my spy and I was able to reach an Advanced level in no time. If they do take them out quickly, just keep trying. The longer a spy is in their territory, the higher your level becomes. One method I've seen mentioned which would probably be effective is to save up a number of spies then place them all at the same time. It will take the AI awhile to neutralize them all, allowing you to gain a level or two. Plus if you target their markets, it reduces their ability to recruit spies of their own.



If you have at least one spy at home, you'll always be able to spy on individual planets.

Don't place them one at a time, build up a reserve and dump them on the same target. Intel spikes work quite well. The other thing to consider is that the frequency of removal is going to be dependent on the economic strength of the target. It's easy for a wealthy civ to deal with a spy or two, but it's problematic for a poor one ot put the resources into counterespionage.

Yes!

yeah but the thing is that you never need to place a single spy and That is my gripe:

You can build one spy and then use the "place spy" dialoge to look at every enemy colony, regarldess of espionage level. On top of that you can even get the stats (MP, TP, BC, morale) for every colony. You don't need to get to ADVANCED or spend any significant time other than purchasing one spy.

Individual planets, no, you can use one spy to look at the entire empire. It's a bug, loophole, cheat, cheese, what ever you want to call it and it needs to be fixed, because a) I'm sure the AI can't do it giving the player an unfair advantage and b)It seems to contradict/shortcut the exsiting espionage model. Why waste money builidng a bunch of spies to get to advanced when all you need it one to look at every colony?

That's really what we want when we get to advanced, to look at planets.
- we can already look at ships/station stats (the important ones)- atk,def, spd regardless of espionage
- we can look at AI's tech using the diplomacy screen.

Espionage only really exsists to look at planets, and with this bug, it's pointless to build more than one spy for the purpose of espionage (conter espionage is different and builing a few makes sense)

can you steal enemies tech? can you sabotage their production? can you destroy improvments on an enemy planet? I thought I read these things would be incorperated into the expansion.

That's not true at all. I like using espionage to judge how near a planet I'm trying to flip is to joining my empire. There's also a number of stats that don't appear without a high level of espionage. Plus you can't steal techs if you're not using spies.

Yes, yes and no. At least I haven't had the option of actually destroying anything yet, just disabling for awhile. Until my agent gets nullified. And there's a few things you can't disable, like Starports.