Great game! I do have a few suggestions though.
Buff culture, land/footprint, and/or their early growth rates. The fall off rate is slightly ridiculous next to the rate of requisite growth after about 10-20 systems. Especially early on, combined with extremely limiting land/footprint ratios, it's a major strangulation.
Overall, this is a great game, and I'm looking forward to spending quite a few hours on it.
Once it's a little more balanced.
It's an alright game..But it PUNISHES YOU. If you get low in funds, it seems like the game makes a POINT of screwing you out of a TON of work. I went -29 gold ONCE, and I lost over 30,000 worth of items, as well as two employees at level 20+. This game has a LOT of potential, but it is EXTREMELY flawed. Because of that loss, I'm stopping playing this game until it's been seriously rebalanced. I'm highly disappointed with it right now. 2/5 stars until it's fixed.
 "First Empire"){kind=icon}
 "Swords & Potions"){kind=icon}