I agree, I always enjoyed SFC2 in that I have heavy firewalls, and cannot connect to Dynaverse too often... it had a decent 'conquest mode'- different missions, monsters, the AI would almost once in awhile... SFC3 was just trhown together almost.... that is why I supported ActiveX with his Continuous Space Campaign- to make SFC3 more of a game, instead of almost having to log onto the Dynaverse to get any more fun that the Story Missions. This one is just.... lacking. The new add-ons are great; it was annoying not to be able to use the warp drive, nor to customize ships without buying a new one.
I was hoping for decent conquest mode, as I cannot connect to those kind of servers easily- a lot of people try to hack into my system... I guess I am glad to a little ST fix, better than nothing.