Realism (of a sort)

[Jubala]

If you haven't played Stars!, go get the shareware/demo at http://crisium.com/stars/stars/index.htm and experience shipping three kinds of minerals around in all it's glory. It's not uncommon to have hundreds of freighters zipping around the place with minerals. A micromanagement nightmare if you have a couple of hundred planets. Still a very good game though, but taking your turn in a advanced pbem game can take quite some time. Especially if you want to maximize your production which means you have to ship around minerals so they are where they are needed all the time. It can be automated with the very advanced cargo carrying system but before you have set it all up to your satisfaction you need to keep tabs on it personally.

I'm no big fan of the Stars! approach because of the MM, but I'm not to fond of the SE4 approach either because of the FM. It's kind of like choosing between two evils...