It is worth noting upfront that it is a turn based game, only the combat simulator is in real time, that said...

It's a very good game, especially with the expansion packs, very combat and war orientated, meaning for example Sins can honestly be said to have much greater non-combat depth than it, research is almost exclusively combat related (it's also to a degree, random so you can't expect to have a technology in two different playthroughs), and economics comes down to waiting till your planets have terraformed before spending all their money. The races play differently enough that you'll likely have to play test them till you find the one that you like

Yes, it has multiplayer, but don't expect them to be short games, weeks is the method longer games should be measured by.

There is nothing directly comparable to Sins capital ships in Sword of the Stars but once you get to Dreadnoughts (the largest ship class) you will be laughing maniacally as very large lasers annihilate your enemies

The Dreads are slow and powerful, even more so than sins capsips.  A well designed dread can shred a fleet of destroyers or cruisers if they aren't handled well.  Most of them look good, but the engine isn't as good a sins in the graphical department.  Of course, they have more guns and many are on moving turrets.

In the new expansion you can get "fighters", though they are fairly usless late game, but really the combat is nothing like sins.  there are no healthbars, and there are less ships on screen at a time, but it is more tactical. There are no special abilities or in combat repair, but you get ships that honetly feel more heavily armed than sins ships.  You can also design and equip your ships to a degree.  I personally love the game and the AI is fairly tough on the strategic map.  It really is bad in combat, as I can generally maul larger fleets just because I know how to keep formations.  Of course, once the AI gets dreads it doesn't matter as much.  Really, imo, the hardest thing to get used to will be the races' different movement styles, but I like all of them except the zuul's as it is really micro heavy.

i like sword of the stars, the only negative thing i can say is the "voice" acting drives me nuts. That can be fixed with the audio controls though. Its not near the micro and chaos of Moo, but ya still get some good sized fleets, in nice 3D and such.

When Sword of the Stars was first released, I wasn't too crazy about it.  But the subsequent two expansions made the game live up to what is was meant to be. 

You can read a review of Sword of the Stars: Ultimate Collection here.

You really can't compare those games as they are of a different genre.  SotS is like Sins, or Total War for that matter, as it is all about conquest on a galactic scale, while EvE/X3 is more of a spaceship simulator with economic aspects.  If you enjoy Sins, or Total War, odds are that you will also enjoy Sword. 

And yes, Kerberos is run by a bunch of guys that are passionate about their games.  You can find the devs on the official forums answering questions and interacting just like our guys here.  And they seem to be always fine-tuning SoTs with expansions and patches.   

And what do you guys think about this up comming mmo Star trek on line?

Too early to tell, but from what I read, it sounds good.  It is going to have more of a "bridge commander" outlook than say EvE or JG.  In other words, you will be managing a large crew and be able to adjust ship systems.  Also, combat is going to be much slower and closer to the age of tall ships than other games...something that has me very excited.

Fingers crossed.  I'm sick to death of Star Trek-itis, but this MMO sounds refreshingly original.

Nexus is available on Steam for $9.99

"Sins can honestly be said to have much greater non-combat depth than it"

Umm, no. Certainly not with the expansions. SotS is fairly beer-and-pretzels by the standard of TBS games, but Sins has no empire building depth at all.

Tick tock tick tock. Waiting for the Impulse release. The ultimate version that is.

Sots as we call it is very good game. It has decent MP, mostly organized using XFire. 

The vocie acting I love. Only the Liir can get on my nerves.  But the other oens are great, especialy Tarka.

If I buy Sword of the stars off of Impulse instead of Steam, would I have to be running Impulse when playing Sots?

The reason why I asked is because If I buy it off of Steam then I am required to run Steam in order to play the game      

How does GalCivII:UE install and launch? I got the Ultimate bundle before UE came out so I have 3 separate icons for GCII, GC:DA, and GC:TotA. I can launch either as the launcher and switch chapters if I want. Just curious.

FYI SotS:U has 1 icon and launches the Murder of Crows. So far I like it. It's like SoaSE and GalCivII had a baby. Interesting how you can target parts of a ship in tactical mode.

Question about the new Ultimage package:  Do any of the expansions include ground invasions of planets?  Or are destroying them and/or demanding their surrender still the only real option?