The new Beta is running smoothly, no end of turn crashes anymore. I have played 2 games on a large map, 8 opponents, full AI. The AI performed well, even adjusting weapon strategy midstream to counter my defenses.
The new single ship graphic display has some kinks to be worked out still. It does speed up the game, noticeably. However, in zoomed out "icon mode" any space with more than a single ship displays nothing, i.e. no icon. This is much like playing the game while looking through a hole punched card. You can't find your own ships easily, and trying to chase down ships that randomly stealth while in sight range because they happen to have landed on a trade line freighter can be annoying. I found myself scrupulously avoiding the use of rally points or any "ship gathering" at all.
The end verdict is that the Beta is excellent overall. Stable, loads faster, runs faster. I will continue to play on it for its crash fixes. I look forward to Beta 2, and the return of persistent ship icons again.
As always, thanks to you and all the folks at Stardock. Your company, in my mind, does many things the way they should be done. To that end, I try to push all the strategy gamers I can find into your sales que. Until EA buys you out anyway.
