Official SE5 release date announced - September 12

[Q]

That is good to hear.
Why introduce maintenance for units, if almost everybody is complaining in SE IV that fighters are too weak in later game, dones are almost useless and satellites offer only limited protection for planets. The lack of maintenance was the only real advantage of these units.
If you pay maintenance anyway, why not building only ships??
And if I don't care about one thing in a game like SE it is realism ! It is only the question what makes the game more interesting.