The shit they are doing to sots 2... it all sounds so damn good on paper...
- Expanded diplomacy
- Expanded tech tress (YEAAAH!)
- 3 Layered combat system, battles take place in full systems instead of in orbit of just 1 planet
- Due to above you can actually setup defenses in systems, say, Minefields and Asteroid raider hangars anyone?
- Better ship builder
- And... I could go on forever but a lot of stuff
If you have any interest, listen to this podcast here, it's an hour long interview with Martin
http://josefvstalin.com/?p=156 and a lot of info is dropped there.