Howdy, y'all!
Man oh man, I've been looking for a game like Diaspora for a long, long time. I'm not a hardcore gamer by any means (2 sons and a wife in grad school), but I get time in here and there. Back in my single days, I was a big fan of the X-Wing series from LucasArts, but have been itching for one with more realistic physics ever since. A friend turned me on to Elite: Dangerous, but alas, my 5-yo MacBook Pro has a lot of trouble keeping up with it, with the screen often blacking out during any combat.
Haven't had any luck searching through the Steam, Gog.com, PS3, and Android libraries for a decent space game, and I was losing hope. Finally, while poking around space combat simulators on WikiPedia, and lo and behold, I see Diaspora: Shattered Armistice listed. I'm like, what?!? Not only does the game I'm looking for exist, it's based on BSG... and it's FREE!!?!?!? I installed it, was thrilled to find it worked, and so now I'm here!
I used to be a software engineer, too. So, maybe I can chip in on that front. I worked mostly on embedded systems in the wireless telecom industry (mostly in C in vxWorks), but that was many years ago, so I'm very rusty. My 5-yo is getting interested in coding, and I've gotten a little bit of that itch doing a teeny bit of R programming for work, so we'll see. I've only gotten through the tutorial missions and that first one so far.
The other main game I play these days is War Robots on my Android tablet, and I lead a clan there. Honestly, I can't really recommend that game, as it's been becoming more and more pay-to-win in the past few months. Also, their forum doesn't allow political debate, and that's something I also enjoy, so you may find me mixing it up in your political board shortly.
Anyway, hello again! I live in Austin, by the way.