I quite like StarSector too. It clearly owes a lot to the Escape Velocity series which I love.
StarSector’s focus on colony management is super fun though. The recent patch was also quite good and seemed to add more story elements which I appreciate. I appreciate the unique looking ships even though some of them end up looking very ugly.
I love working with the AIs. Smuggling them, integrating them into colonies, doing other spoilery things with them. I wish there were deeper mechanics there and more story too, but that could still happen.
I also think it’s fairly weak overall but there are some really great outstanding episodes. Blink of an Eye, Counterpoint, Scorpion, for some examples. And I also agree that the worst Voyagers are really very bad, but are they that much worse than other series’ follies? Is Threshold worse than Code of Honor? Sacred Ground worse than Turnabout Intruder? Fair Haven worse than Profit and Lace?