This is a fun game if you are like the retro computer feeling. The following is partly assumption, i'm not experienced enough yet.
THE DIFFICULT PARTS:
The worst drawback of the game is the very steep learning curve. The manual is 89 pages long and similar to the old manuals, it just dumps the spaceship terminal commands without any helpful examples or detailed explanation. I still don't fully understand few displays and commands. It is a good idea to make a spreadsheet to yourself about the commands, the alphabetical order in the manual is useless. Separates the commands by tasks for easy overview, like Ship controls, Navigation, Targeting, Combat, Scanning, Displaying data, etc.
The second problem is the game speed, which is for some reason incredibly slow on default settings. It has its advantage as you have more time to react, but you will be bored as everything takes time and with the slow settings they really take a lot of time...
The game config is accessible if you put a -c parameter after the Astra Protocol2.exe. I changed the Update Rate and the CRT Refresh values and checked the game speed in the game on the F6 screen (Operations), where you can see how fast or slow the mission duration time changing. I finally set them to 62 (your will be different), instead of the original 16. Unfortunately this makes the game more unforgiving as everything is much more faster. Luckily there is a PAUSE and UNPAUSE command, these are a lifesaver, because you can enter commands and use the screens while the game is paused. Also because some players mastered the game and can play for a long time, now it has LOAD and SAVE commands, which can be used to reload if you are not satisfied with your progress.
After you overcome (most of) these difficulties, the fun begins.
GAMEPLAY:
You can scan your surrounding for objects, target those objects (planets, moons, spaceships, space lifeforms, asteroids, space mines, etc) and scan them for information as your mission is to find leads which can help you to discover the meaning of the Astra Protocol, which is an unknown event referred by a space object - inspection determined it is a distress beacon - from unspecified origin. Sometimes you get transmissions for other objectives, like scan some planets and its moons for scientific information. I presume you should send the data to a space station, but i am not there yet. So, there are plenty of phenomena and objects in the game, you will be not bored.
SPACE BATTLES:
Ships come after you, the smallest ones are shy, they usually lingering just out of the weapon range. I presume there is a maximum number of spaceship the game handles around you, so it is probably a good strategy to spare the shy ones, few of them are better then few hostile battleships.
To destroy them, first you have to target an enemy ship (and probably scan them), each operation takes time, while they will don't stand idle. You can fire missiles at them, reload the missile tubes, there are 2 forward tubes and another 3-3 on both sides, (mines can be dropped from the rear). Both firing and reloading take time, so probably better if you change your bearing to spin and send missiles in waves from each side, while your other missile tubes reloading. Accelerating is advantageous, you can move out from the path of the enemy missiles. Small ships can be destroyed with just few missiles.
Also you can send out drone fighters or activate your lasers, you can set a target for every one of them, from your actual target to the incoming missiles. I think fighters are flimsy, but can kill an enemy ship. I used them only once when i was in trouble, they destroyed the hostile frigate, but i lost 2 from the 6. Lasers are surprisingly strong, easily can destroy space lifeforms and asteroids, but because their short range, it is not too good against anything which can shoot back.
There are four shield arcs for each sides of the ship, without them the hulls takes the damage and with it the ship systems and the destroyed systems are gone forever. Also the shields will not protect you while you recharging them.
REACTOR:
So you have to navigate your ship in the space and discover things, using several systems from several terminal screens, everything takes time and you have to calculate with that. After you learned to use those systems, your next steps will be the management of the ship reactor, simply because reactor meltdown will be your top cause of death. Everything needs power and many systems are extremely power hungry. It is very easy to overdrive your reactor and it can melt down surprisingly fast! You can inject coolant into the reactor, but it takes time to cool it down. If you use the reactor on little power it will slowly cool down by itself.
For example you just want to flee, so you set to maximum acceleration, that takes away 66% reactor power, you set shields to maximum and the four shields needs 4x15% power and here you go, you already above 100% and the reactor starts to overheat. You enable your lasers to destroy incoming missiles, that +25% reactor power. If you use the rudder or the lateral thrusters, you will be blown up in no time.
Or you survived the encounter and just want to stop your ship, so you command the autopilot to stabilize and it unknowingly melt down your already hot reactor, because negative acceleration needs power and you didn't power down your shields and lasers yet.
That is when you start to juggle with the system powers, you power down shield arcs from the the safe sides, toggle lasers, set autopilot maximum engine power to 50%, etc.
SUMMARY:
Awesome game which needs a lot of experience and attention to survive, also some forward thinking and planning. Its main drawback is to difficult to learn and the fun begins after that, so i presume many players will be discouraged by it, because they will not enjoy the steep learning curve.
