Hey Brandon, I have been playing Stellaris. Its the first computer game I've played in a long time. I think it would be worth playing on line, especially when I go to Germany in October. I have another friend that plays. One good thing about it, for multiplayer, is that it is real time (not turn based. Also, you don't control the tactical battle. All you can do is design ships and decide whe/if you want to retreat. Bottom line is you can give orders, and the fleet carrries them out. Also, it limits the number of planets you directly control to 5, so you can't (and don't have to) micromanage everything. ONce your empire gets big enough, you set up sectors and just give general instructions to those sectors. So far I love it. It has lots of diplomacy options as well as internal politics in your empire (various factions that want things, and elections). Overall I recommend it.