I liked the cozy feeling I got as I few around EV, so it is probably my favorite. EVO was a bit scary and I never quite feel safe when I play it (too many unihabited worlds inside governements), although the plot is much better. I think I'll like EVN's universe the best though, because I know ATMOS is going to do a really cool job.
And now I will go into detail:
The thing with EV was that it was a universe of balance. In Confed systems, there was almost always a few ships to protect you from pirates, and often there wasn't anything to fear anyway. Rebel systems were more dangerous, but that was expected and it made the game more interesting. The pirate worlds were out in the edges, and you never really needed to go through them except during a few missions. The independant worlds were placed very well, and added to the balance, often separating the warring governments, but not completely. The Cydonian/Lythean(?sp?) governments were great too, because it was balanced and was like a scaled-down version of the Rebel/Confed war. I hope that EVN will include a few minor conflicts between the same races, as EVO unfortunately did not. Such governments wouldn't need any major plotlines, except the occational mission of enemies attacking the system.
Okay, now for EVO. I loved the idea of a non-static universe, with many large storylines. The problem with that universe was that the individual governments were too spread out, with too many uninhabited systems. I never found a safe "center" of the UE, strands, or miranu governments. I know that the reason for this was the vonian and strand wars, but that doesn't mean that the miranu can't have a core, with miranu independant worlds at the outer edges. I hope that EVN will have independant worlds for other species, similar but different from the strandless worlds.
In conclusion, EV had a universe that could be easily understood, with many interesting independant worlds. EVO was great in its changing universe, but I never understood it, and missed the little people. I hope that EVN will make a perfect blend of the two ideas, yet on a much larger scale.
Whew, that took a long time. I'm going to leave the boards now and eat my dinner.
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-mrxak
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"'Ilegal operations' are not allowed in heaven. Therefore, neither is Windows."
(This message has been edited by mrxak (edited 02-09-2001).)