I'll admit, I'm an RTS fan, specifically a Homeworld fan and am bit of a newbie (maybe 10 hours under my belt)But why Crystal and Metal? They don't seem to add anything other than you have to constantly do a buy/sell minigame to get what you need.
If you have to "constantly do a buy/sell minigame to get" the materials you need, you're doing something very, very, very wrong.
Personally I'd prefer money only, but if it needs more, than say Crystal Only.
Races use credits, metal, and crystal very differently. Having all three adds a lot of depth to the way the different races exploit the galaxy's limited resources.
Next, Why do I have to build a crystal and metal harvestor? I've got 100 things going on at the same time to remember to jump over to that planet and figure out if everything is being mined.
That explained your first problem. When you settle a planet, click on the little mine build buttons
immediately. They're cheap, and if you don't have enough resources to build them right then and there, it's because you haven't been building them right then and there!
I know you can set a rally point within a planet gravwell , but is there any way to say, all ships made at this factory, go to spot X on the map, even if its on another planet?
Yes. Click on the little rally point button for either a factory or a whole planet, and put it ANYWHERE you want. I often put it on top of a capital ship, so that all built ships join up with the flagship, no matter where it is.
I hate when I'm trying to quickly build a fleet to have to jump around all these planets as ships are built to tell them to go do something useful based on a press I want to make.
Learn to use the icons on the side bar, instead of zooming all over the map. Seriously, learn.
Speed, why isn't there a speed jump mode in single player that accelerates time by a factor of X until you stop it. Sitting and waiting for my ships to make a 5 planet jump is painful
There is. Try the + and - buttons on your keyboard. Yay!
Is there any ability to move your ships on the Z axis? Seems rediculous in space to have everybody flat with each other.
Yes, but you have to set a key to do it, since one doesn't come assigned, for some reason. Go to your keybindings and set it to what you want.
Thos whole culture thing seems like another variable that is a PITA.I guess what I'm saying is are any of you mod-boys working on turning this into a true RTS and less Sim City?
If you wanted a standard RTS with no "Sim City" aspects, you bought the WRONG game. Thankfully, many of us bought the right game, and enjoy the heck out of it.
Any other huge complaints/questions that can be solved by one sentence answers?