Question for game owners

[linger]

I'm debating whether or not to buy the game in it's current state. There's no demo so I have question for owners. I've tried researching the game by reading the forums. There seems to be two main problems with the game (at least for me) from what I've read.

1. Is it true that other than 2 races (the name escapes me), expanding your empire to be very large is impossible because of bureaucracy costs? I like playing for conquest victory but it sounds like mostly the only way to win the game is by gathering race-specific VPs.

2. How much time would you say you spend on population transport per turn near the end-game (e.g. 30%)? This is assuming you aren't ignoring your pop transport problem because it is near end-game already.

Thanks

[solops]

I love it. Few bugs and a lot of fun. There are some areas of the interface and econimic balance that need work. Most of the complaints are about features that are easily tweaked in the XML files until patches appear. The basic game design does not suit some of the more vocal critics, but I like it just fine and look forward to improvements. I was getting tired of MOO3, even with Bhruic's patches, and even Sword ot the Stars was getting dull. This game looks like a keeper. I've played 3 games out past 250 turns and not had much trouble.

[Starfry]

You can have very large empires if you play on maps with many empires but you have to make sacrifices in order to do so. 

[siRkid]

I love the game. I change three things in the xml file to make the game more enjoyable for me, and it was easy to do. Under Races/Humans I change “Disorderly” to “Orderly.” <Capability Name="Orderly" Level ="1"/> so the population would not revolt so early. Under technology I set the upkeep cost of the Entertainment and Security centers to 20 to make them really cheap to maintain. I’m on turn 450 and have a huge empire and I’m having a lot of fun. I don’t mind moving the population around because I like that aspect of the game.

[linger]

Thanks for the responses so far.