A good beginning, but needs an overhall

[Supreme]

First off, I am a fan of Star Trek Infinite, and I've enjoyed it a lot so far. I've always been a keen player of the 4X games, even the long-forgotten Birth of the Federation. That being said, there are many glaring errors contained within so far. I've blasted out both a Federation and Klingon playthrough so feel it's acceptable for me to lay out the various issues that I've found so far. To be clear, this is me being a mega-nerd.

The main factions starting directly next to eachother. Considering the game seems to imply you're starting just after the formation of the Federation, it makes little to no sense that all the major powers starting boxed up together from the go. There were long periods of exploration and expansion from each of the empires. In general the map needs to be A LOT bigger, both between the playable empires and elsewhere.

Ship progression doesn't make any sense. The second ship you unlock for the Federation is the intrepid class. This ship was built even after the galaxy class. Then you somehow build a galaxy class (The Enterprise), but can't build anymore. Then suddenly you can build the Excelsior-class next. This ship was built a good hundred years before the Intrepid class. It just screams "We don't know Star Trek". And where are the ships we should expect from the start, such as the NX class, and the various classes built during Kirk's era? Frankly, it's a mess

Warp drives don't work as they should. Sent your fleet to a distant star system and want them to change course? Bad luck sucker, they're locked in for the entire route. Disengaging warp engines just isn't a thing in this game. Again, it screams "we don't know Star Trek".

Ship combat is copy/paste from Stellaris. I realise this is because you're using the same engine, but it's just sloppy. Watching a fleet of Birds of Prey circling a target and firing torpedos from their sides is just painful to watch. None of the ships behave even slightly to what we'd expect from an actual Star Trek ship. No front facing weapons systems and aft torpedos, you can expect every single type of ship to do this standard stellaris circling the target and firing continuously even if this makes zero sense to the ships you've built. Makes me not want to watch any combat even though this is probably the most exciting part of the game.

Borg storyline is weak. Often the text reads something like "the borg cubes attack", only when you go and look its a bunch of Borg spheres. Again, very sloppy, and the entire chain of events is almost pointlessly easy. Really the Borg needs to be it's own faction that periodically attacks an empire and attempts to assimilate a planet to gain a foothold in the alpha/beta quadrants, a seriously challenging enemy that gets stronger. Right now they're a joke.

Where are the other powerful empires? Most of the non-player factions are nothing more than single system extras. Where are the Tholians, the Gorn, Xindi, Breen, Sheliak corporate, Tzenkethi, to name a few. And where are all the Aliens that eventually join the Federation? Apologies if I've missed these, as I've seen a few such as the Trill, but where are the Benzite's, and the Bolians, and the rest? This is even before you consider the Gamma and Delta quandrant aliens, and the Dominion? There is much work to be done here unfortunately.

Mission steps are locked behind tasks that can become impossible Want to continue the Klingon mission steps, but can't ally with the Federation? Too bad sucker, that's the end of the mission line for you. Want to upgrade the Enterprise but you didn't save any Hazardous systems for it to explore? Bad luck sucker no better Enterprise for you. Need to liberate the Bajorian system to continue the mission line, but all three of the other factions are in a defence alliance to counter you're unbelievable strength? Bad luck sucker that's the end of the mission line for you. These don't feel like they've been thought through at all.

These are a few of the issues I've noted so far, I'm likely to add more. I've got high hopes for the continued development of Star Trek Infinite, and hopefully it will continue to improve over time. A lot needs to be done but I feel like this is a solid start for the game and I look forward to seeing it's progress in the future!

[Elunamar]

I've seen the Bolians pop up in a few of my gameplays so they do exist here. I think most of the issues you address are the result of a game released too early, either by intent (milking out them DLCs) or most likely rushed by their publishers to satisfy the shareholders.

[polymath]

I would really love to the Dominion and the Delta Quadrant races eventually: Kazon, Krenim, Viidians, Hirogen etc. Also Xindi from the Enterprise, the Gorn (as depicted in SNW) and Species 8472 as a possible end-game crisis