Here are also the game’s key features:

• Turn-based
• Tile based (hexes) based movement
• Ship design
• Strong-AI for opponents
• Deep gameplay customization
• Free-form movement (as opposed to starlanes)
• Player controlled cultural evolution (are you good, evil or a shade of gray?)
• Planetary invasion requires actually invading a planet
• Mixture of deep lore (a handful of carefully crafted civilizations and histories) mixed with game-to-game generation of new lore and species
• Big technology trees