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At first glance, the interface presents a bewildering array of choices and icons. There are three main sets of controls on the main screen and three windows below them. The largest window presents a system view, with all the stars, asteroid fields, planets, wormholes, ion storms, and ships. A star chart of the galaxy is on the lower right, and the details of the selected object are in the window above it. The star chart will show all the stars in the quadrant, but only the wormhole links that have been explored. If your allies deign to share their star charts with you, the information will be shown here as well.

It’s the controls on top that make the interface so elegant. The twelve buttons on the left are the high-level empire status controls. These include game options, ship designs, research, diplomacy, construction queues, planets, and colonies. All the empire-wide functions are here, for quick and easy access to all the important status screens. Placing the cursor on any of the buttons in the panel will bring up their function on the main system window.

The buttons in the middle are numerous, but most of them will be unlit. Only the illuminated buttons are relevant to the currently selected object, whether ship, unit, or planet. This drastically reduces the complexity into a manageable number of choices. All the commands are accessed from the main window through these buttons. No more wandering hip-deep into menu after menu to access the more obscure commands.

There is, however, a strange quirk regarding the colony ship and the commands. If the colony ship is ordered to colonize a planet while it is in orbit around an existing colony, it will load some colonists and colonization will proceed as expected. However, if the ship is ordered to move first, it will not have any colonists in its cargo holds. Unless it is ordered to proceed to another colony to load colonists, or it is in orbit around another colony when the colonization order is given, the new colony created without a population. The colony lies dormant until a cargo ship unloads colonists into the ghost town.

The set of controls on the upper right cycle between the different planets, ships, and fleets belonging to your empire. This method is convenient, and some people will undoubtedly use it, but I prefer the colony and ship/fleet pages.

Most empire-level status pages offer filtering options. The planets page will screen for breathable atmosphere and/or uninhabited planets with a touch of a button. The ships/fleets page will show any combination of ships, units, and fleets.