[dogscoff]

The one thing I don't want to see in this game is the inclusion of hi-res graphics or anything 3D. I don't have the funds to go buy a new computer with all of the latest bells and whistles just because so many games nowadays have to have 128+ megs of ram or 16 megs for a 3D accelerator. That's one thing I do love about this game. I don't need all of that stuff to play this great game.

Very true, well said. I am also a bit of a low-tech anarchist at heart. (although I recently sold out and invested in some tech=-)

One thing I wil add though- I don't think the 4X genre lends itself particularly well to low hardware specs. Sure, we can do without 3D graphics, but what about all that data? I mean if everything we suggested on this forum got incorporated into a future patch, the game would have to track about 4 times as many variables as it does now. And right now it tracks a LOT of variables. A large map can have 255 systems, each system has a dozen or more worlds, each world has (potentially) a population value, resource values, conditions, cargo... and that's just the planets. Anyway, all this data takes up memory. Windows can just use swap files if it runs out of real memory, but that slows things right down... future Versions of SE might run on a P200/32meg, but it will take you all night to process the AI turns=-)