Does anyone else have the Sins beta? I've been playing it, and while there's only one faction, part of the (small) tech tree and many disabled functions, it's a bit of fun. The AI doesn't seem to be very aggressive, and there seems to be a lot of AI diplomacy that I don't hear about as bounties (cash subsidies anonymously put up for the destruction of a nations ships) are constantly changing. The AI is also quite active, requesting and providing assistance all over the show - even bitching when you don't cooperate. The realtime play has fairly slow FTL trips between systems (often 20-30s), a regenerating 'antimatter' stat on ships to prevent constant jumping, and nice deployment of logisitic and defence structures in orbit.
However, unit choice is *very* small (in total, perhaps 14 ships from frigate to dreadnought) and only the largest ones get upgrade options. Ships are often durable enough to cross a system without being killed, and so long as they have enough antimatter for the next jump they can usually escape. Things like trade, refining, and culture don't seem to be implemented yet.
EDIT - Bad Stark, no link. Sins website here.
Sins of a Solar Empire beta
Moderator: Thanas
Sins of a Solar Empire beta
From what I'd read I expected something a bit more Starships Unlimited/Homeworld than the quite SotS-esque game it is. The realtime makes it a lot of fun to play, and the UI allows you to generally control and coordinate everything easily - except 'get a few dudes from system x', as I can't work out how to select individual ships without zooming in to the planet in question. It's still closed beta (only pre-orders) so a lot of content is missing, but the beta is out there if you know where to look.