Beware as you are just looking at the best 4X game that is.

Don't look at my played time here, this game was available for years already from a very unheard of distributor BUT now is available on Steam at last for the people to see it already.

Maybe you are wondering why it costs so much. Well it has 4 expansions build in it already so that's why. But believe me IT'S WORTH IT. If you like 4X games, this is just a must have.

The cons:

1. The game is not turn based. Everything is done in real time. You can pause the game and speed it up or slow down at your own liking. This may be a + for someone though...
2. It's not as shiny as some other 4X games so if pretty graphics are what you prefer you may be disappointed.
3. The game can be demanding even on high end PC's if you run really large galaxy.
4. Unfriendly UI. If you run huge resolution you will have problems to read the text.
5. The learning curve... you will spend hours getting into the game. But don't be afraid, huge automation can be set up to help you.
6. No multiplayer. I don't mind it but maybe you do?

The Pros:

Everything else. It's the most complex, never ending fun 4X game I have played. Just the way how the AI is done hooked me up. But to make it fair here are some picks for you.

1. Huge amount of races that actually play in character. It's not like in other games where every AI plays the same way but has different stats. Here the AI behaves in the ways how they are described. They play in character like in RPG game.
2. HUGE galaxies. Trust me you never saw something like this before in other 4x games. Each game can last for dozens of hours if you want.
3. Set up your game to the last possible thing you can imagine. The start up set up is just incredible.
4. Automation ... don't like research, or ship design, or diplomacy, or anything else you can imagine? You can automate it. You can focus only on the one thing you like the most!
5. Pirates ... you can even play as one.
6. Mods ... do you want 10 more races or to play Star trek 4x? ... You can have it.
7. Micromanagement ... it can be endless.
8. The complexity, you can spend hours in design tables that make sense in comparison to Moo3 for example.
9. Battles, there is very few games that can simulate such large scale engagements over the whole galaxy.
10. Play it your own way. You can win the game without any battle if you want. On the other side waging wars is FUN.

Do you need to know more? Watch some videos on YouTube from Das24680. He has also full tutorials for those who would need them.

*Update - I have added more Pros as this game deserves it and I have forgot to mention them.

I write this review shortly after it becoming my most-played game on Steam.

It's difficult to summarize what is- without question- the best space 4X that exists.

With all my hours, I've never even really played past the midgame. There's so much replayability just in restarting galaxies with different settings. I constantly got somewhere in the midgame and realized there was a setting I wanted to change.

You'd be surprised how much some of those galaxy generation settings make a difference. Things like pirate amount, pirate strength, colonization range, galaxy size, colony influence range, and even the generic difficulty setting.

I constantly toyed with all of them. Trying less but stronger pirates. More but weaker pirates. I finally found the balance I like.

Colonization range matters. Too large and empires jump over each other's borders. Too small and you run out of in-range planets you can colonize.

Galaxy size, in relation to star amount. You can do 15x15 with 1400 stars, or 10x10 with 1400 stars. The difference of course is the density of the entire galaxy.

Influence range. Colonies project "influence" and these influence circles are considered your territory. This is a setting typically not thought of- just set to the recommended setting- but this matters too. For example I'm experimenting with having it set to the minimum setting- 10%- and this is all kinds of interesting. The influence circles basically don't extend beyond their respective solar systems, leaving the vastness of space permanently unclaimed. Multiple empires can have mines within a single solar system, and not ♥♥♥♥♥ at each other for having mines in the other's territory.

The difficulty setting. I played on Normal for the longest time. But I began to notice that towards the midgame, I would have like 16 colonies and every other empire would have like 3 or 4. I was vastly ahead. Bumping the difficulty up to Hard allows the AI to keep up with me, and it's common for a few to stay ahead of me as well. An extremely welcome change, to not just breeze through the entire game.

Ship design is amazing. I love unlocking new components and building ships from scratch. Testing them out in battle. When they wreck face, I feel like it's because I designed them well.

Lots of people describe the game as a space opera and it really is. The stories it creates, the politics that unfold, are amazing.

This game swept me away. I've played it for countless hours on end. There is a feeling of vastness to it that no other 4X has given me, whether in playing them myself or watching others. The fact that the game is real time rather than turn-based is a big part of this.

Look up pictures of the galaxy map for this game, largest size. You actually feel like you're a pathetic little nothing, in just one of the 1400!!! solar systems in the galaxy. Many empires, you'll never actually meet, just because they're so far away.

The reason this is the best is because of immersion, because of its mechanics that effortlessly cause such immersion. Fine control over resources, ship design, and surprisingly good diplomacy.

You can design your mining stations to be weak and have fleets to protect them, at the cost of state funds. Or you can decide to make them extra freaking beefy so that they can hold pirates off on their own, at the cost of the private sector, which usually has a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of cash laying around anyway.

Need I go on?

I really hope you guys found this helpful. Comments are greatly welcomed!

Distant Worlds is the most complex space 4X strategy game I've played in my 15+ years of gaming. Where it lacks in flashy graphics, it makes up for in vibrant, uniquely immersive gameplay. While it's not without flaws, I definitely recommend it to any would-be galactic emperor looking for a thoughtful space 4X experience.

Pros:

• Its galaxies are bustling with life and activity. DW provides pretty much the most engaging simulation of a sentient life-filled universe I've seen to date.
  
• A rich and unique economic system: Your civilian taxpayers are actually running their own private economy with ships and bases you can't control.
  
• You can automate pretty much anything, letting you focus on controlling the parts you most enjoy.
  
• Every little ship has a competent AI allowing your empire to fend for itself even without constant input from you.

Cons:

• Colony management is rather simplistic.
  
• Research is done by advancing through a fixed tech tree just like in the Civilization series. I consider this a con because it makes large parts of each game play out rather samey, hurting the otherwise great replayability.
  
• Due to the complexity, DW isn't an easy game to get into.
  
• There's no multiplayer mode. This isn't a con for me but it might be for some.

I've played many of the space 4X games out there including Master of Orion 2, Imperium Galactica 1-2, Pax Imperia 2, Galciv 1-2, SotS 1, Endless Space, Space Empires 4-5, Star Ruler, Lost Empires, Armada 2526, etc and to me what sets Distant Worlds apart from all of these is that its galaxies feel "alive" and real to a degree that I just haven't seen in any other space 4X game to date.

They are living, breathing worlds filled with hundreds to thousands of ships, each with their own agenda, going about their daily activities around the clock: civilians hauling cargo, tourists visiting resort bases, military ships patrolling trade lanes, pirates raiding, ancients scheming... all in real time. There's always something going on.


At the core of this bustling activity is the economic model that's one of the most richly conceived ones out there.
For once the people that you're taxing for income are finally actively present in the galaxy - they're running a private economy, buying freighters from your shipyards, hauling resources to wherever they're in demand, carrying tourists to your resort bases, migrating in passenger ships from colony to colony to avoid high taxes, etc and they do that completely without your input - in fact you can't even control them directly but merely influence them (e.g. by designing better freighters for them to buy) which gives DW a bit of a Majesty-like charm.
All of this isn't just a small sideshow either - these civilians actually make up most of the interstellar traffic in the game.


The part of your empire that you directly control is also a lot smarter than in other games. It's not a completely helpless child that needs babysitting with even the most basic tasks such as resource flow or self-defense.

Resource flow for instance is handled by the aforementioned private economy *if* they have enough money to buy and maintain their own ships and bases after paying your taxes.

As for self-defense, even on full manual control, your ships can be given individual AI that automatically assigns them to civilian escort, patrol, defense, etc duties across your territory according to your empire's needs (and yes they're smart enough to refuel/repair without you). You just build them and they'll handle the rest *if* that's what you want but you can also take manual control and have them follow your orders only.

In either case, you can leave your ships completely unattended because it's possible to configure their design to e.g. kite enemies with long range weapons, close the distance for short range attacks, board and capture hightech enemies for disassembly, etc so that they fight exactly how you want them to even when you aren't looking. And it's always a glorious moment when your automated defense fleet first defeats a pirate raid without any input from you.

In fact part of DW's appeal is that when building your empire you're basically creating and nurturing a complex self-sufficient system with the aim of making it more efficient than the rival empires.


An interesting quirk is that you can automate just about anything from research to foreign policy, military operations, espionage, etc. On full automation, the game essentially plays itself. That'd be like watching a pure AI vs AI match in other games. Only here you can influence your AI by taking control of certain decisions. One possible playstyle is to only control one aspect (or just one fleet, or ship) of your empire while leaving the rest to the AI which makes it feel like you're just a minister/general/fleet admiral/ship captain instead of a supreme ruler.

The ability to automate things also makes the late-game mop-up period a lot less tedious. In other games, I often just quit once I reach a point where nothing can stop me because the game is practically won and the only challenge left would be to endure the tedium of rinse-repeat steamrolling whatever is left out there. In DW, you can finish up by declaring your wars, putting your military on full auto and watching your good hard work come to fruition as carnage ensues without the hassle of having to manually control all of that.


Naturally you also have most of the standard/good bits from other 4X classics such as custom ship design, diplomacy, research, espionage, pirate factions, assignable characters (scientist, governor, etc) with developing abilities, random events, hidden tech, abandoned ships around the galaxy and so on.


There are also some extras like the logistics system - in DW your ships generate their energy from fuel which will limit how long they can travel or fight before needing to stop by a gas giant's mining station or a spaceport to refill their tanks. I also really like the pre-warp starting condition where you're confined to your first solar system until you develop some type of warp drive due to the simple fact that your impulse engines are too slow and would take forever to reach even the nearest star.


My primary complaint would be that the research aspect which is exactly like the research in the Civilization series (and most other 4X games) is too static. Since technological progress essentially defines how these games play out, if the tech tree is always the same, then each game will also start feeling the samey after a few playthroughs. Fortunately in DW, 1 playthrough can be very long - I'm 137 hours in and only played 2 games so far.

Of course, this isn't a negative point in the sense that most other 4X games handle research the same simple way (remarkably, one of the few exceptions was good ole MoO2). But I hope game designers will someday inject some dynamism and randomness into this most overlooked and outdated aspect of the 4X concept.


My other complaint would be that colony management is rather simplistic. Setting taxes and race policies is pretty much the only meaningful "management" you can do as there are very few buildings to build and most have no economic impact so there's not much you can do to customize colonies.


Last but not least, it deserves a mention that the first few hours of DW can feel quite intimidating in various ways: If you don't use automation, it can feel overwhelming while if you use too much automation, it can make you feel unneeded. Don't let that discourage you though because with practice it will all become second nature and you will eventually do much better than the automation so just experiment to see which learning style suits you best.

At the end of the day, if you persevered, Distant Worlds will reward you with an epic space 4X experience that you just won't find anywhere else.

Distant Worlds: Universe is a game that falls under the RT4X genre (e.g. Sins of a Solar Empire), which is developed by Code Force and published by Slitherine Ltd., most notably known for their catalog of strategy games ranging from 4X to Real Time Strategy (RTS).

Distant Worlds: Universe has a VAST and EXTENSIVE micromanagement system that basically allows the player to form their own dream space-faring civilization. If you're the type of player who loves war, the game has an extensive tech tree that follows that path. If you're not really into conflict then you can automate most of the war process and focus more on trade and commerce which is also very extensive. To make a long story short, the game can accommodate every play style that different 4X and strategy players usually look for such as War, Trade, Diplomacy, Space Piracy, Benevolent / Tyrannical Empire style etc.

+ Extensive and deep empire management system that allows you to focus on certain aspects that interest the player. (War, Trade, Diplomacy, Space Piracy, Benevolent / Tyrannical Empire etc.)
+ Helpful in-game encyclopedia that details most of the game's mechanics.
+ Customizable civilizations and races, including personalized government types and policies.
+ Design and personalize your own ships, space stations and facilities. (Want to build a Death Star? Sure why not? The game is not going to stop you.)
+ Moddable
+ Unlimited replayability due to the game's extensive nature.
+ Large scale space battles and planet side (ground) combat, something that Sins of a Solar Empire should have had.
+ Good sound design and in-game music.

- Graphics is sub-par. I'll be honest: the 2D sprites in this game are not that pretty to look at.
- User Interface (UI) is barebone in design and sometimes utilizes Windows sound effects and prompts. Seriously, it could use some work.
- Very steep learning curve
- Some sprites overlap each other making them a bit hard to click. Good thing that the game allows you to select the units through a pop-up list of the stacked units.
- Performance may degrade when your empire gets way too large but it still ultimately depends on your PC's CPU power. This means that the System Requirements in the Store page may not truly reflect what you really need if you're planning on playing this on the largest galaxy possible.

EXCELLENT RT4X GAME but only if:

1. You’re a fan of 4X strategy games
2. You love micromanagement
3. Have a lot of free time
4. Have a lot of patience

This game makes all other 4X games look simple in comparison due to its vast scale.

One question that faced many people concerning this game was the hefty price tag of $60 (or your regional equivalent), a price normally seen with large Triple-A title games. In this case however, Distant Worlds: Universe contains the base game plus all past expansions including the final one, so treat this as a 'Complete Edition'.

Buy this game at full price if you fulfill the requirements I listed on the CONCLUSION part because otherwise, wait for a sale if you just want to try the game out.

---------------------------------------------------------

If you liked this review or want to see more recommended games, be sure to follow our curator group: Original Curators Group

People who should play this game:

- You like crazy insane completely ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Byzantine depth with a learning curve to match.
- You like the idea of a 4X game map that's so colossal in scale that you can easily lose a dozen hours in a single match and still feel like you've barely dented it.
- If you were always in love with the idea of designing your own starships in a space 4X, but the limitations that most of the genre greats in that particular gameplay area labored under felt stifling to you.
- You don't mind a subpar attempt at a story if the core gameplay under it is good enough.
- You don't mind having to install a few mods to make up for the game's most obvious shortcomings.

People who shouldn't play this game:

- You're not willing to spend hours just getting a handle on the basic game mechanics.
- You don't like a game that demands substantial multitasking ability to succeed.
- You were bothered by the snowballing number of things you had to keep track of at once from the beginning of the game to the end in more traditional 4X games like Civ. This game is much, MUCH worse in that respect.
- You're a control freak who can't stand the concept of automating even the tiniest aspects of your empire management. It's all but required for the sake of your own sanity to alleviate some of the lower level tedium here as a match goes on when you will literally be managing hundreds to thousands of individual ships at once by the end.
- You're not willing to put up with janky documentation that occasionally forces you to figure out a mechanic for yourself.

If you're reading this, you probably know a bit about this game already, so I'll touch on a few things that I don't think press on this game has explained very well.

Ship design is by far one of the major highlights of this game, and not so coincidentally where it happens to depart most substantially from its forebears in the 4X genre. Distant Worlds gives you a "size" cap based your tech level and lets you put very nearly whatever the hell you want on a ship you want to design, within a very few common sense limitations -- the game won't allow you to install thrusters on a space station that's never going to leave orbit of the planet it's built at, for instance.

The game does make you pick a "role" for each ship design, but for the most part this merely serves to give you a framework for the variety of functions your fleets will need to fulfill to make your empire tick. There's nothing stopping you from, say, designing a cargo freighter that's almost as heavily armed as the biggest, scariest capital ships in your fleet, for instance, other than technological limitations. Does it make sense to put guns on a cargo freighter? Not really. But the game gives you the freedom to make that choice for yourself and find out why it's a bad idea organically.

What you should understand about the logistics/economy in DWU: resources don't exist in some phantom dimension in this game where they're just automagically available anywhere they're needed in an instant. They have to be mined, then they have to be transported EVERYWHERE they're going to be used by cargo freighters that are fully simulated by the game in real time. You don't have to go through the tedium of controlling those freighters yourself -- that is done by your empire's private sector, which is AI controlled and purchases freighters that are constructed at your spaceports automatically as they are requested to transport the resources. But it does mean that the game forces you to be aware of your supply chains and defend them as needed. Pirates and enemy empires alike are fully capable of destroying or raiding your freighters en route to their destination, and if they're allowed to do so to an important trade route with impunity, they can bring your empire to a standstill without ever being forced to attack your fortified space ports and colonies.

Distant Worlds is the best 4x available today. It's combination of depth and accessibility is unmatched in this genre.

How, you might ask, does it accomplish this feat? Variable micromanagement. If you want to nurture your colonies from day one, to design every strut and gravatic beam weapon on your ships, and ensure that the right espionage agent ends up on a mission to steal operations maps from your dreaded enemy, you can. On the other hand, if you want the AI to deal with all the micromanagement and to instead cruise around the galaxy in your prototype hyperdrive rocket, look at the ruins of ancient civilizations and run from giant space lobsters, you can do that instead. You can even combine the two -- more or less -- and tool around in the rocket while occasionally changing tax rates, build orders, and spy/diplomatic targets.

Unlike most 4x games, DW is built on the back of a fairly intricate economic simulator. But wait - simulator - does that mean I can't control it??? Not directly. The civilian economy, all those little freightors, gas mining ships, and tourist vessels... that is almost entirely out of your hands. You can set up your military/industrial base to encourage good civilian use, but the civies decide for themselves whether they want to pick up a load of Cason gas and move it to where you need fuel for your next military campaign.

DW:U brings better pathing, improved AI, and expanded mod capabilities to an already great game.

Cons: The game resolution is set to your desktop resolution because it runs in a borderless window. Consequently, the font can be small and hard to read. If this is a problem for you, one solution is to lower your desktop resolution before launching the game.

*This review is based upon many hours of DW:Legends gameplay. Universe brings 2 additional expansions worth of gameplay to the table and I look forward to getting to know it well.

The Distant Worlds franchise has proven to be an unusual exception for me. When it comes to games these days, I am rarely an "early adopter." Rather, I wait for other, more adventurous gamers to gamble their time and money before I stick my toe into the water. But with Distant Worlds it was different for me from the get-go. I was intrigued from the first moment I saw the low-fi 2010 announcement pitch from a then unknown New Zealand development team by the name of Code Force. There was just something about it that suggested ambitious innovation from the get-go. As I was reviewing games at the time, I requested a review code for the original DW game to check it out - really, more out of curiosity than an actual eagerness to play the game. Long short: I quickly became hooked, as you can read here:

http://www.gamesquad.com/review/distant-worlds

Right off the bat it got a solid 8.0 from me!

Well, Code Force wasn't done yet! They proceeded to take the community feedback and wishlist items and incorporate a lot of it into subsequent expansions. As you can see by my subsequent reviews, they did not disappoint:

http://www.gamesquad.com/review/reviewed-distant-worlds-return-shakturi

http://www.gamesquad.com/review/reviewed-distant-worlds-legends

With the release of Legends the game had already earned a "9.0" from me. Impressive!

Of course, since then Code Force has released two more expansions, so the game has only improved (especially in light of the Universe compendium that FINALLY brought the game to Steam!). If I was to review this title today, it probably would top out around 9.5 or better!

Now, why do I say that? What is it that makes Distant Worlds so special? Simply, it is this:

Unlike most other space-based 4X strategy games, Distant Worlds isn't some sort of chess-like static experience where nothing happens unless a player makes it happen. Instead, DW is more like Sim City or Europa Universalis, or even Crusader Kings 2, where the player immediately understands that he is but one small cog in a very large, very active galaxy where all sorts of things are happening that are outside of his control. Part of this is due to DW's real time environment (again, like EU or CK2) where there is constant activity on the map from the various other factions that share the galaxy with the player. But the biggest contributor to all this activity is the game's "Private Sector." Unlike every(?) other 4X game out there, DW deliberately limits the player's action to the "State" sector of his empire, which includes the military, diplomacy, tax rates, and so on. As with the real world, the private sector - the citizenry, merchants, miners, traders - are outside direct control of the state. While the player can influence their actions with policies, their day to day activities are completely autonomous. This is where DW brilliantly succeeds as it is the private sector that brings so much life to the galaxy. In fact, this is why I often compare DW to Sim City because it can be so much fun to watch "the little people" go about their lives in a very dangerous galaxy as you do your best to protect and shepard them. For example, I recall one game some time ago where a passenger ship was attacked by a space monster (or was it pirates?) while on route to a tourist destination. The ship was badly damaged and left adrift. As the supreme ruler, I had to send out a repair ship to save them, which was really cool. Of course, I had to detail some military vessels to protect them while the repair ship did its work. THAT is the type of unique, micro focus that DW offers that so many space games just completely overlook.

I also find DW to be like Crusader Kings 2 because, with the arrival of the Legends expansion, DW now has its own cast of characters - diplomats, scientists, spies, and more - who are randomly generated and acquire unique personality stats. As with CK2, this really adds a sense of personality to your empire (and yes, far in excess of the under-cooked characters in Endless Space). And while these characters don't engage in the sort of interpersonal skulduggery that is common to CK2, they can be assassinated and killed by events. Just yesterday I had a talented energy researcher assassinated when his research base was destroyed by a sabotage-induced explosion!

Do you see how I mean DW is less like your typical chess-like 4X strategy game, and more like a science fiction Sim City / CK2/ EU4 hybrid? There is just nothing like this game on the market at the moment, something that fully justifies its somewhat pricey cost (trust me: it is worth every penny!).

In short, if you like turn-based, by-the-numbers, 4X strategy game where you have total god-like control over everything, this might not be for you. But if you are the type of gamer who loves real time grand strategy games that works with you to tell your own story in a sandbox environment - again, like a Crusader Kings 2 or a Europa Universalis 4 - this is DEFINITELY what you have been looking for. You don't so much play DW as you experience it. And, as with Crusader Kings, when the game is done, boy will you have some tales to tell!

Highly recommended!

Single handedly the best 4x sci-fi grand strategy on the market, despite its age. This game, imho, tops Stellaris and GalCiv easily.
As an old git, I'm talking strictly about deep game-play mechanics and not graphics, which to me is an after thought.
I'm also not putting GalCiv or Stellaris down as they're great games in their own rights.

First things first - I see a lot of negative reviews about the game not working. It works.. I've been playing for years on Windows 10 and it works. No crashes, no issues, no work-arounds. You can run it on Windows 10, you don't need Windows XP, or Media Center. Not sure what issues you people are having but throwing toys out of your pram and posting misguided reviews isn't going to make it work.


Probably the most important question in my opinion. There are a lot of great space faring strategies, but what keeps me engrossed in DW more than the rest?

1) It's real-time. Turn based is fine, but it's so common now. Having a strategy that runs in real-time is just more enjoyable and you get to avoid one of the caveats of turn based games - the grid. You are not restricted to moving on grids, nor are you limited to moving along warp-lanes.

2) Its private economy. Your citizens will purchase ship designs and go about setting up their own businesses transporting goods and moving freight as well as mining both Minerals and Gasses.

3) All goods are physical. Unlike many of games of its genre, the items are not dumbed down into globally accessible values. Gold, Lead, Steel, Caslon, Hydrogen, they're all physical commodities and they are not available throughout the entire galaxy just because. If your colony needs Steel to finish building a Ship or other project, your private economy will freight the goods to the colony needed.

3a) An extension to point three. It's actually possible to disrupt supply lines thanks to physical goods actually being moved around from location to location. Destroying an enemy freighter will actually have an impact, either by delaying something they were working on, or creating a resource shortage. Obviously, the adversary can do the same to you so guarding your most valuable mining operations becomes a priority.

4) You need resupply lines to get further out into the galaxy. You cannot just jump from one side of the galaxy to the other in a number of "turns" which has become all too common. If you head out, you will run out of fuel. Setting up and protecting valuable Caslon bearing Gas Giants is vital. Setting up temporary mining operations using a Resupply Vessels, particularly for militaristic or exploration purposes, even more vital.

5) There is an entirely different game waiting to be played through the use of piracy. You're not limited to just playing another species taking its first steps onto the galactic stage. Play as pirates for an entirely different game.

If you're having trouble with running the game, the solution is not to flip your ♥♥♥♥, refund, and then leave a scathing review for a game you've never actually played. That's unfair to the developer and unhelpful for everyone else who may want to try the game. So, after spending about three minutes on the internet, I have a solution that should help you get to the main menu, if you're just now having trouble with that. (I played the game a couple years ago and just reinstalled it today, and yes, it got me too.)

1) Go into the game files (just right click on Distant Worlds Universe in your library, go to manage, then click on "browse local files."
2) Find the startup .ini file.
3) Open in Notepad and change playmovie from a 1 to a 0.

There. You're done. Was that so hard?

This is, hands down, the most complex 4x I ever played.
And I've been playing it since the first release, back when it was only Distant Worlds (this version has four, I think, expansions already integrated)
It does things differently from others, and this is a very good thing.
Let me explain

The most notable thing is the existence of the civilian sector. Unlike most 4x, you aren't a god, you control the state, but not the people and you really need the peoplet to sustain your empire and, thus, must protect them and nurture them so that your tax base grows.
Though it is a bit more complex than that.
The first thing you have to understand is that resources? there are lots of those in game, and came in three cathegories, Strategic, Luxury and Super.
Strategic are needed to keep your warmachine going, Luxury enhance the value of your civilians helping their planets grow faster and more devoped (and thus more profitable), supers are technically luxury as in that they are used by your civilians but they have profound effects, are very rare, expensive and desireable that I generally put them appart (specially since all empires can restrict the trading of these resources to other empires).
Not all planets, asteroids, nevula and what not have all resources, so it si important to have multiple mines thoughout your territory and beyond to feed your industrial might.
Not only this allows you to deepen your stockpiles, buti t also lowers the price of the resource in question, which in turn lowers the cost of components that contain that resource .

Ship components are manufactured from the Strategic resources, it is not abstracted, and generally needs several resources, in different quantities, to produce a single components.
Because of this the logistics of the game are complex, but it is generally of little immediate concern to the player, you aren't going to be manually moving resources, the traders are for that (so you better protect our mines, miners and trade ships) and do so more or less automatically, of course, scarcity of the resource modifies its price, and therefore a component might be made cheaper by having multiple mines.

Speaking of which here is where the game shines, see, because you need to protect the civilian sector, the mines and the trade ships you need more than the battleline, you also need cheap, inexpensive and discardable escorts to police your inner lines both from imperial raiders and pirates.
Spaking of which, it is important to note that this means war is more complex than throwing your fleets at the enemy. You have to protect the homefront too.
Or, if the enemy is more dangerous than you and can't fight it head on, you can try to collapse his economy by raiding his soft underbelly or by hiring pirates to do the raiding for you, you can even do that in peace time, but of course, you might just get found out.

Speaking of pirates, dealing with them can be complicated. using them as proxy might be tampting, but they aren't the most loyal of folks, and letting them grow too large might be... unwise.

The game has several modes, but have a basic divide you can be a normal empire or a pirate nation, this changes how you play the game significantly as they have completely different playstyles.
As a Normal empire, you can start at different levels of development, from pre-warp all the way to being an already stablished star nation.
I love Pre-warp start, it is impressive seeing the little ships puttering on your starting system, as you develop and industralize it, turning it into the cornerstone of your empire

While you can micro everything, the AI is reasonable and generally does a good job, though as of late I prefer to contorl where the mines get built to make it easier on my navy.

Thing is, this is not a game for everybody. It is dificult, demanding and expensive. The art and interphase could be better, but it is functional and do their jobs well enough. But it is, hands down, the most ambitious demanding and complete 4x I ever played.
Worth every penny to me.