I have to ask, how many people who have trouble learning SE4 have little or no experience with turn-based strategy games?
I know that I've been playing them since Empire back in the days of mainframes and that these days, if you play one, you know 80% of the controls for all of them. Most of the basic strategies work the same across the board as well. I needed less than 5 minutes to learn SE4, and whenever I need to access a feature for the first time, I have no trouble finding it exactly (or right near) where I expect it to be, based purely on assumptions from my experience with Emperor of the Fading Suns, Civ, Alpha Centauri, Galactic Civlizations, Star Control I, Moo, etc., etc., etc.
Of course my mindset also predisposes me to like many features. Take the colony ship thing. When I first discovered it, my reaction was, "Wow, cool! I get to choose how many people to put on my colony ship, or I can load it up full and send it on its way with just a single click! That's so handy."
------------------
Compete in the Space Empires IV World Championship at
www.twingalaxies.com.