[Talenn]

ClamBoy:

I never played VGAP so I cant help you there. But, I can tell you that in a game as complex as SE4 there bound to be a host of 'exploits' that people will find. I have seen plenty and I've only had the game for a few weeks.

The GOOD news is that you can change almost anything so that the exploit is removed. Sometimes you have to take a more indirect route to do so, but I have yet to come across anything truly 'unfixable'. My usual method has been to post about it here just to see if I am missing something completely obvious. Barring that, I go in and tweak it. I'm quite pleased with the way my custom data set is evolving.

Some bad news for you...if you are playing PBEM, there is NO ability to control the combat. You can set prebattle strategies for your general ship types and general fleets, but the battles are all autocalc-ed. To me, that kills have of the fun of researching all the neat gadgets and outfitting the ships with them. Also, designing multi-role fleets etc is far more entertaining when you can see it all unfold.

So, if you looking strictly for PBEM, my opinion is that the game is certainly VERY good, but you wont get the joy of using your pretty little ships in battle. The emphasis is on much higher level decision making (for better or worse).

Hope it helped a bit.

Talenn