Ever since I played Nexus: The Jupiter Incident I have always wanted another game where I could choose the layout of my ships. I had not even heard about GSB until yesterday when I saw on sale on Impulse. I didnt know anything even about it but was bored and thought I would give it a try… and it turned out to be exactly what I have been looking for.
Fantastic game, thanks.
I won’t presume to speak for cliffski, but welcome aboard! We have a great treasure-trove of information here on these forums; please take full advantage of it.
Once you’ve become comfortable with the basics and explored the four standard races in the game, stop by the Mod forum. We have a small but dedicated modding community here that’s created some detailed & carefully crafted mods for the main game.
A few tips for you: Be sure to give your ships an armor rating of at least 12 if you wish to survive your first encounter with enemy fighters. EMP Shielding isn’t as effective as it looks. Plasma has trouble hitting the broad side of a barn, even on a good day…unless you unwisely design speed-zero ships. Research the implications of the “resistance” attribute versus weapons fire, as that has a major effect on shipbuilding plans; the same goes for “weapon tracking”.
Above all, have fun with this game. 
Thanks for the tips Astro. One of my favorite cruiser designs right now is completely loaded out with plasma. It definitely is not a front line cruiser; however, having it hang back while faster cruisers and frigates move in front makes it good for support.
I just want to add my thanks in here, too! This game is all my favorite parts from all the sci-fi empire building games with none of the boring bits!
I’ve managed to convince 4 friends to pick up GSB. 
So fun. Pewpewpewpewpew!
I want to add my thanks as well. Without this game, I would be stuck with nothing to do for most of my free time D:
I’m looking forward to the campaign… and GSB2 xD
I think I’ll join the thanks train
Thanks Cliff for creating this awesome game I had been looking for during so much time ;). And also thanks to choosing that artist for your ships, they inspired me a lot and were determinant in my decision to learn to use a 2d editor in a computer, and keep learning some 3d modeling too.
Hoping to see moar Gratuitous content in the future
I have to agree that this game is awesome! I had tried a number of different games where you controll a sace such as Star Trek Armada II, Sins of a Solar Empire, and even the space sections in Star Wars: Empire at War, and none of them are anywhere near as fun as GSB dispite me being a total newb. My hat’s off to you Mr Harris!
Star Wars Empire at War was a very good RTS game. Very underrated, but quite awesome. The ground combat could use a bit of work, but the space stuff is awesome. I particularly enjoy the chunks of ships that blow off when components are destroyed. 
SoaSE, outstanding RTS. Slow, grand strategy, none of that zerg rushing that so commonly ruins RTS games.
I just don’t know what it is about GSB thats so awesome. GSB is actually a very simple game, but yet its so addicting. Its almost like a tower defense game. Tower defense games are very simple but I can spend all day playing one. Maybe thats it.
GSB = tower defense in space?
well… in a sense it is almost a tower defense game, where you are attacking and can destroy towers. (in fact, i found out about this via the TD games section in the jayisgames.com website)
From the GSB FAQ Page:
“Imagine tower-defense, but with moving towers that you can design from scratch, in space, with cool laser effects. That is a fair approximation of GSB.”
So yes, it’s a lot like tower-defense games. 
oh yeah. maybe i should read that