In the later patches, the user interface has been improving to help reduce surprises - and the game mechanics as well. The game does give you guidance in the form of alert bubbles in the upper left of the screen, informing you of the things it thinks are most relevant, and paying attention to those can at least show you what you might want to think about. Even after you've learned the basics, you'll still find yourself wondering: if I declare a holy war, will it cost me diplomatic power to annex territory or not? And it's often hard - certainly in ironman mode - to undo decisions, so small mistakes and misclicks can end up costing you a lot. You crush them and bring them under your control - and suddenly you find revolutions popping up everywhere.

You start again and this time you find a weak neighbor with no allies. You start over as a bigger country and attack a smaller neighbor - and suddenly you're in a war against several large countries at once. You have a country and three thousand infantrymen - what can you do? You decide to attack your neighbor - and they cut you down like reeds. Steep learning curve When you start out, it can be overwhelming. In essence, you must learn to balance fleet needs, knowing the right time to expand, while keeping large groups of your ships scattered in key positions to await reinforcements should the need arise. However, not expanding quickly enough can halt the player from building up a fleet capable of taking on an enemy, or pirates head-on. With fleets sometimes taking minutes to arrive at a destination, and defensive structures quickly falling to a massive fleet, it is easy for players to move out of position allowing key worlds to become targeted and lost in enemy incursions if they expand too quickly. While the game, at its heart, does appear to be slow (and sometimes is), awareness of your surroundings is paramount. Due in part to this scale, there is a perceived slowdown in gameplay lengthy building construction, minutes-long research and slow unit movement. Slow-paced logistics and combat necessitates situational awareness Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion is a strategy title on a massive scale, with players able to colonize multiple solar systems in any given match.

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