Despite having played Star Control 2 way back when, I've never played Star Control 2 as much as Starsector but that's primarily because I'm not competitive and thus battles in Star Control 2 were borderline infuriating for me unless I used cheats and/or used the flagship as a flying doomsday cannon and watch my opposition get royally blown to glass puddle, made me feel better.
I still play like that but in Starsector. The difference however is rather quite astronomical as I can change ships, weapons, configs, sprites and then try a bit slightly different level of overkill along with visuals. Loving how this game let's one mod like that without the hassle one would have to usually deal with in every other game just to mod in something, even if it is a tiny detail sometimes. Glad it's not the case with SS.
Current/modern mainstream gaming industry is as much nerve-rackingly mind-numbing for me as trying to fly through Ur-Quan space up outwards the galaxy without fly-by-wire in a Mycon Podship. The plus side to this is that I still have enough access to biomechanical equivalent of buttons and controls near/inside the dead Mycon pilot to melt incoming attackers with hot plasma and propel the ship away faster each time I use the cannon which luckily was already used as a physical booster by the dead/half-dead mushroom crew (
killed by gaming industry, not me) and thus can use their ship just long enough to escape from that mainstream gaming hell and see the greener pastures of games that still stay true to singleplayer roots of the DOS era more-or-less.
All those multiplayer-onlys, over-hypements, lies, greed, microtransactions, season passes, pre-orders, loot boxes, predatory practices and at the end of the day; poor players being turned into paying cash-cow whale-hybrid somethings. No, just no, read enough, seen enough, I pass and reject and (would almost if I could) leave with the subtlety of setting a Mycon 'Deep Child' podship (
after I've left from it) on a crash course through hyperspace at the speed of light with a Chmmr matter-antimatter bomb into the galactic core to destabilize the supermassive black hole(s). It'll take a long while but the end result will be spectacularly satisfying.
All joking aside, I'm just as sick of that mess like anyone else here and thus whenever there is a quality game like Starsector that isn't just a yet-another-money-grab, it's even more important nowadays to hold onto it and not letting it go gently into that good night, IMHO.