1. No, I believe the ships in the demo are the whole TEC roster. There should be 6 frigates, 4 cruisers, and 5 cap ships per faction. Everybody has the same types of frigates (with different artwork), 3 of the same cruiser types (and one that's unique to their faction) while the cap ships are all race-specific.

2. You can turn off the diplomacy system by locking teams at the beginning of the game. This will result in everyone being hostile to everyone else for the whole game. There's been a lot of discussion of the diplomacy system, but the current word from the devs is that it will not be changed until a future expansion.

3. There's no time limit, and the only map size limit is what your PC can handle. I've personally had games last as much as 7 hours. Usually they last more like 3-5 on medium maps.

4. Two other factions with shuffled tech trees (many of the techs are the same, but are available at different levels), different ship artwork (and a couple of new ship types, as listed in (1) above), and a couple of unique buildings. Oh, and I don't think the random map generator was in the demo, its the best tool of its kind I've ever seen. If you enjoy playing the game, you'll have no shortage of maps to play it on.

Hope that helps.

You should also have a look at the "I'm on the fence" thread for further discussion on this subject:

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/305812

I of course heartily recommend my pros/cons post on the second page.

That is why I would like to have a timer option for multiplayer games, because I would like to play on the super large maps. I've only been playing small 1v1 maps just because of time restraints.

How many people actually get a WIN on their record by playing on a large map? Very few....very very few.

If I somehow inadvertently gave the impression that it was a simple art swap, rather than a case of many of the ships filling the same role in each case, I sincerely apologize. That was not my intention. If I could edit the original post for clarity I would do so, but the forum software does not allow. You're just going to have to trust that when I said "type" I mean "type" as in carrier, long range weaponry, siege, etc.

I actually see what you were reacting to now more clearly, I said "No, I believe the ships in the demo are the whole roster" when I meant it was the whole TEC roster. That was my bad, and if it gave a false impression about the game it genuinely wasn't intentional. Are you able to edit responses, because that actually should be fixed.