[Amos]

That's funny, as what finally stopped me from playing it anymore was that all attempts of fan-released patches fro the tactical combat failed. The strategical game is awesome imo, it's just very different from what's common and the manual crap. But if you've read a the guides from the devs and learned how to work with the management AI not against it it works really well. It reduces micromanagement so much the only thing i usually have to do is designate planets to be colonized, set up some building guidelines/select planet designations, and update ship designs. The only real problem in the strategic game is that the AI won't scrap obsolete mines/farms.
The tactical game on the other hand was tragicly bugged, most notably everything evolving around visibility (sensors, ECM and ECCM). The result is that the only two viable lategame setups for ships are one-shot missile launchers that immediately withdraw, or carriers with a lot of point defense. And those bugs were hard-coded and not fixed in the final patch. Ever since that i hate Atarigrames with a passion.

I completely agree. I liked the idea of tactical game not the implementation. The idea was very original and IMHO should be used in more space strategy games.