[CW]

After another hour on the simulator I can't stop myself from asking, has the strategic combat portion of the game even been beta-tested? You have got that "fleet for player" screen that is only barely working; ships that ignore orders, shooting at planets when they are told NOT to; ships running to the corner when they are not supposed to etc. What's even more strange, I ran the simulator in strategic mode a few times in a row without changing anything, the ships would behave entirely differently - the ships were told NOT to shoot at anything that doesn't move (planets, sats, mines etc) - the first time they dutifully chased after the target ship; the second time they chased after the ship then switched target to the planet mid-way and got themselves killed; then from the third time on they would just go for the planet and ignore the ship! I can reproduce the sequence again by exiting and re-entering the simulator. Adding in a not-very-smart AI and you have got one big frustrating mess for the player. I hope MM works on it FAST, in the main-stream market this is the sort of thing that really turns people away. Considering that I spent quite a bit more money on SEIV than a normal off-the-shelf retail game I would really like to have some justification for my cash.