I seem to recall there being a couple of y'all last time I asked/it came up. It'd be cool to get a hubski game going!
For those who do play it, have you been keeping up on the new content/changes in the pipe?
I did a play-through in may, after I bought a new computer and finally had enough machine power to actually reach the end-game. While the game has improved quite a lot since launch, I still found it rather boring at times, and I got frequently annoyed at all the missed opportunities I spotted furing my play-through. This game has so much potential, but after all this development I still find it just mediocre.
It seems to be very dependent on how the early game goes. I'm also a weird case, in that I usually need to do something else while playing a game by default (woo ADHD), so some mid-game drag doesn't actually feel different to me.
That is definitely a thing that happens. I'm not sure to what extent it's like Civ, but I do think that you have to keep your military beefed up to avoid some AI aggression. Others are just born that way (e.g. a fanatic purifier), and I've found diplomacy to be a much bigger necessity than in other 4x games.
I find that the hardest part is balancing expansion. In general, expansion is good, but there are some mechanics that make this require some pause. The more planets and systems you control, the longer it takes to get tech and unity perks. That said, as a general rule I err on the side of expanding, since eventually the map will fill up. Meanwhile, military expansion should be gradual but constant: you don't want to have to try coming from behind, and the stronger you are the less likely your neighbors are to mess with you.