1 - I’m not sure why the difficulty would change on its own.  Usually, you just choose what level you want to play on per game.

2 -  Are you saying that when you send a constructor to the starbase and tell it to add a module that there are no modules available?  The total modules available should reflect whatever tech level that you have achieved, but it goes for all modules, including weapons and defense.

3 - You can select a ship and tell it to upgrade all of that type of ship at once.  If you have 10 1/1 fighters, you can upgrade all of them with the single command.  The time it takes to finish the upgrade will depend on how far the ship is from an influence generating base (starbase or planet).

4 - I don’t understand the question.  You’re saying that you don’t like tech trading and therefore don’t like the idea of doing away with tech trading?  Confusing.  You can turn tech trading off if that’s what you prefer.

5 – Stardock Central’s architecture was too limited to handle everything that’s required of a more modern distribution platform.  Impulse isn’t a simple upgrade, but a total rewrite of the platform.  Explore it and you’ll probably start liking it better. 

Welcome back to the fray.  I hope you enjoy it.

A comment on upgrading ships - I don't know of a reason to constantly upgrade ships.  Upgrading to the newest technology as soon as you get it is pretty inefficient.  Personally, I'll upgrade a particular ship type no more than twice from cradle to grave.  Usually only once during its lifetime. 

Hi Motti

Thanks for the advice,

Will try and clarify

1) When I played my first 3 campaign missions they were set to beginer my fourth mission is now set to cakewalk.  I could change the difficulty back up to beginer but no idea why it was changed?  Is this some sort of bug.  Will I even have fun playing at such a low level or is the fourth mission thatmuch harder that stardock bumps down difficulty?  Actually come to think of it my third mission I started with 30k cash.  Maybe it was set to cakewalk????  Still confused how difficulty changed and why (first two missions I had 5k cash)????  

2)What I meant is that I build a constructor.  I click on starbases to see if they are upgradeable and they say 2/4 modules.  I bring the constructor to starbase wasting several turns and then it says I can't upgrade it (I havn;t changed anythign during this time or upgraded other starbases).  I'd like to be able to click on a starbase and know whether I am wastingmy time sending a constructor there.  

3) I meant more so upgrading ship designs.  I guess every time I research a few new components I feel like I need to add an extra laser, sensor, etc.  Maybe this is just wasting my time and not that important?  Sounds like that is what you were insinuating.

4)I don;t like having to micromanage tech trading like in civ 4.  But at the same time don;t want to turn off tech trading and take away a big part of the game.  Guess wondering what opinions are on this.

5) Don;t like impulse because I couldn;t search for titles by name.  Also foudn the menus very anoying.  It took me forever to figure out whether I was using the newest version of dreadlords and dark avatar.  stardocks old interface was much better in terms of user friendliness.  I hate the idea of using a "webrowser".

Thank again also I am not using ToA.  Wen I bught dreadlords and dark avatar a few years back it wasn;t avaliable.  I may buy it later but havn't played these two enough yet.

I resisted Impulse for several months, but once I switched over, I found I preferred it greatly over SDC. It's just more aesthetically pleasing and a bit easier (for me) to navigate.

I don't mind the webby part, but I mainly use it to update (or install, as when I switched computers last winter) my games.