I’ve enjoyed the time I have spent with Polaris Sector quite a bit. It does have some rough edges, I think the pirates are a bit too strong to early and do not seem to have a base to blow up, but overall I like what it brings to the table.
The ships for each race are of a unique style and size, which makes a difference when designing ships. The designs you use change how you employ the ships in combat. Having a dedicated point defense ship and matching anti-capital ship design works well. You are always balancing trade-offs on power/attack/speed/defenses on designs and these things matter in the combat.
There are four types of fighters, from the basic up to gunboats that have a single 360 degree turret as well as their other hardpoints.
The research is pretty well done, if a bit slow for my tastes overall. The whole game is a lot slower paced than most space 4X.
The ability to build fighters and defense satellites at a planet, crate them up and transport them with a cargo freighter out to whatever chokepoint you choose and then poof defensive position is very nice.
Another difference from most 4x’s is the way that attackers are at a disadvantage when coming out of a warp point. The defender gets to preposition their ships, the attackers start spread out across their half of the map. This can make things very interesting as you try to consolidate your fleet, or on the defense, to get fast ships and/or fighters over to destroy enemies in detail.
The other main difference I can think of off the top of my head is the way espionage works. You build freighters with either active, which can do sabotage incite riots steal tech etc, or passive espionage abilities. The passives can be used in your territory to spot cloaked enemies, and in enemy territory to get information on ships/planets etc.
The game is also very moddable, although at the moment at least it doesn’t support steam workshop.
I don’t regret the purchase, and hope that modding/expansions continue to make the game even better.
