One of my favrioute games
Ive played this game on and off since its release. Its great for a game you can just pickup and play. I just jump into a map i make up and then away i go. Some of the tech is brilliant. Building huge super weapons which you can use to bombard one plant after another.
There is three paths you can go down with regards tech tree. however you are not locked into a specific one you can level them up as long as you have the cash and the structures. The trade empire is the way to go building trade ports at each of your planets earning higher amounts of cash the more you have in a row.
A hard part is keeping allies as they make sometimes ridiclous requests from you like attack this faction. Or give this much minerals. Luckyily thou you have roughly 5 chances to fulful these before they break their truce. It pays to keep an eye on relations with other factions of the maps as they come in handy.
You can put a bounty on a player and then npc pirates will raid that player and just leave a trail of destruction in its wake. The level up feature of your capital ships is good allowing you to customise what skiills you with. With a range of capital ships to fullfill different play styles and fill different roles in your armada.
Watch out for this one in a bargin bin near you,
Its worth the cash