a truely great game i have played many hours on it thou yet to play multiplayer

Now that you mention it, it might be good name for S-F novel (series). Just out of curiosity, how sinfull can you be in SoSE Are there many acrocities you can commit, can you be cruel to you subjects and conquered people, can you use NBC weapons etc.

Actually, if you're a fan of the Civ games, you might prefer Galactic Civilizations 2. The Ultimate Edition with both expansions has finally been released (I think...if not, it's soon), so you should be able to find it in stores, or on Amazon, etc.

Well you can do planetary bombardments...I can't recall off the top of my head anything further though.

I've spent days playing Fragile Allegiance and Sins is not that different (of course, it excludes base micromanagement, but includes research tree), and you're somewhat limited in your movement by jump lines, but that's just a new tactical challenge for me... So I say: You'd enjoy it, I did and I enjoyed both civ (who wouldn't) and FA...

Do you mean you would prefer this method of increasing your fleet size as opposed to the research tree that is already in the game? Next time I play I am planning on getting the achievement for only using Capital ships, I think that is going to add some fun challenge to the game.

I didn't see it in the research tree...but I would have figured more planets = more people = more resouces = more ships. I might have not been far enough in the research tree to see all that as I was being beset by massive fleets that my fleet took forever to get to...

I can see where you are coming from and agree that the above would be a very intuitive and reasonable assumption. It personally took me a while to figure out all the research tabs in the game. Very fun game none the less.
I have been meaning to try out some of the mods for Sins. Does anyone have a recommendation for a Mod for Sins that is fun and adds something to the experience?

I played the demo and loved it but haven't bought it yet because I know I will get addicted. I'm holding out for summer break until I finally get it. I played the crap out of the demon and look forward to finally getting the time to play the full game.

ITs not in the research tree. However it is in that area - when you load up the research tab there are 4 menu options - one for ship research, one for planet and economy research, one for artifacts that you have and the last is upgrading your fleet capacity limits.
You have 2 options, either upgrading base fleet size or upgrading your capitol ship limit,
As for more planets = more ships considering the makeup of many maps I am glad this is not the case as I think (balancing wise) it would break the game since as soon as anyone got a planet advantge they would be able to steamroll over others - especailly if a random map were to have a player with few planets near their home system

In a way, having more planets does enable you to have a bigger fleet. Since more planets means more income, and upgrading your fleet capacity costs in credits and ore, you need to grab more planets to sustain the research and the larger fleets.

just have 16 capital ships that'll make a.i cringe