It could have been an add-on for the base game, and added new gameplay features, in the same way that The Sims add-ons often add in new features that weren't built into the base game, but expand upon the original game mechnics. There's nothing in Starships that couldn't have been accomplished in the base game. With all that in mind, it wouldn't have been all that difficult to add the maps, units and other features to the main game. Basically the ships aren't flying through space, they're moving along an invisible ground plane, or the equivalent of, with a star background replacing the terrain we normally see.
It's basically CIv trying to give the impression of space when it's actually just a 2D hex based RTS like all the other games in the series. All they've really done is replace the flat terrain maps of Civ with a star field and planets and replaced the normal ground and water based units with space ships. The game may look different, but it uses the same basic engine (albeit greatly slimmed down).
It wouldn't have been hard to get this to work as a DLC. IMO it would definitely have been better as a DLC for the base game. And, as I mentioned above, a modern PC game with no full screen option. The controls are quite clunky as well, no edge scrolling for mouse and so on. It seems quite odd to be met with still images of the other factions leaders when we see detailed 3D models in the other Civ games. That would have taken away much of the expectation that I#m sure many others had of this as well as myself. I think it should have been a stand alone thing with no connection to previous CIv games. I think the problem is the fact that it's set in the Civ Beyond Earth universe, and as such I expected a much more polished product in line with other Civ games.
Guess that'll teach me not to jump to conclusions in future. These days, though, I kind of expected more. In fact if I had played this game 30 years ago I probably would have thought it was brilliant. It feels old fashioned, like it was designed for the Commodore Amiga 30 years ago. The fact that it was supposed to be just a tablet release explains why it's so basic, then.
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