[Arkcon]

I personally got over the user interface designs problems, that seemed to be a deal killer for some people.

The balance mod is very important too. Most significantly for me, the endless tiny incremental tech tree that came with unmodded SE5 was not an improvement. I remember some noobs complained that they finished the SE4 tech tree, and were bored. But that's not what Space Empires was about -- you shouldn't get to complete the tree, you should have conquered the galaxay by then, or have died trying. Truly, on PBW, no one gets to live, unmolested, while they research every tech.

I didn't much care for ground combat. It ran slowly on my old box, and there wasn't much to do, really. 'Tho I'm sure that could be modded.

I actually do look forward to SE6, if there is one. SE5 is more evolutionary while SE4 was revolutionary. Maybe they'll be some more tricks up MM's sleeve for the next version, while some of the grunt work of interface is done.