[ange1u5]

Hey guys, just thought I'd sign up to say first: Great effort guys, am very much looking forward to the next installment 

Second, I have recently taken up to writing reviews and I chose Diaspora as my third attempt.

You may view it here if you fancy a read http://www.sgnonline.com/2012/10/15/diaspora-shattered-armistice-review/

I also did Black Mesa and DayZ before that which are both on that site.

Keep up the great work guys!

[newman]

Welcome to the forums. You posed a question in the review, and I'll give you an answer in spoiler tags:

Spoiler:

During the training missions, the Theseus is actually testing CNP on a single viper - they explicitly say the CNP is not yet installed on the Theseus. During training 2 debriefing, it's said the Theseus is being sent on a long patrol (several months worth) and at this rate they'll be the last ship that actually gets the CNP upgrade. The attack on the colonies actually happens as they're finishing their patrol duty. It's just one of those categories that needs to be handled in a subtle way, or it just feels forced in.

[ange1u5]

Thank you, that answers my question perfectly 

[Spoon]

Long review!
But to nitpick on one sentence:

A decent joystick is a must for this game and my X52 Pro handled it well.

A joystick is not a 'must' for this game at all. It's simply a personal preference.
Why am I making a fuzz about this you might wonder? Well, see the thing with putting sentences like that into a review is that people might get the idea that you can't play Diaspora properly without a joystick and thus decide that despite everything, they won't try it because they don't have a joystick handy. And that would be a shame, cause mouse&kb works just as well with freespace!

[MatthTheGeek]

And are much easier to find and, most importantly, cheaper. Which is a major argument for a free game, don't you think ?

[Angelus]

Spoon's right about the mouse/ Kb - those devices work well with Diaspora and other FSO based Games/ Mods.
My personal preference is a joystick though.

[newman]

Spoon makes a good point. You wouldn't believe how easily misinformation spreads across the internet. We've already seen reviews that claim Diaspora doesn't work without a joystick, even some that say that there are no stars in the game (because whoever wrote that didn't bother to click on a screenshot to expand it..) A lot of reviewers don't even try the game, but rather copy information from other reviews, thus perpetuating wrong information.
Fact is, at least half (if not more) of Diaspora's players play it without a stick of any kind, and we'd like to avoid situations where people don't play it because they think they need a joystick. So, if you could rectify the sentence in which you claim a joystick is a must, we'd all appreciate it.

[ange1u5]

Your point is well taken. To be clear, it was not my intention to suggest you need a joystick to play, only that it was a better experience for it. I will edit this and clarify that part of the review as soon as the site owner is online for me to request the edit. I guess I just assumed the context of me describing the mechanics would imply why I feel a Joystick is better over a Keyboard/Mouse combo. But you are correct in that its subjective 

[Axem]

SGN? Holy cow, now there's a place I haven't visited in ages! Nice to see you guys are still around. 

[ange1u5]

What few of us remain still keep it alive

[Ace]

Also, mission objectives aren't designed to fail. Player intervention is needed to succeed at them, but very few objectives in the game are forced failures. (there's really only one)

[ange1u5]

The joystick issue has now been edited and clarified on the review