In an odd twist, Quick Silver took the gameplay from the previous two incarnations of made Masters of Orion 3 a more strategic level game.
First off, almost everything is automated. Enough so that you'll fight the automation sometimes if there's specific ships you want or a specific colony upgrade you desire. However, the automation does serve to get some dirty details out of your way and in general it builds up colonies well and makes decent decisions about building military hardware based on the general settings you've chosen.
At first, I wasn't sure I enjoyed the shift of focus and the vast automation. But after a playing a couple games, you definitely have the feeling of being a master of a world spanning empire in which delegation would be not just optional but mandetory. And you do have control over setting general policy...though even more control in this area would have been nice.
For starships, the task force(TF) is the all-encompassing idea. To even launch a starship towards a destination, you have to put it into a TF of size varying from a detachment (1 or 2 ships) through other gradually larger formations. A TF has up to 4 requirements based on the mission you assign. Other than size, a TF requires a certain number of mission-oriented ships as determined by the mission of the task force and the mission assigned to the ship on design. If the TF is large enough, it might also require a certain amount of ships to reside in the escort and picket areas of the task force.
Another thing, you can't just build a task force anywhere, you have to create a task force in certain star systems which have built the proper structure. However, this also means that you can build a ship clear across the galaxy and then instantly use it in another system. This is something of a head scratcher. I can only imagine this was a design decision.
I explain all this to also explain my mixed feelings about this system. While it does capture the idea of building a force and adds, it lacks a flexibility. Perhaps if you could build ships with a primary, secondary, and perhaps tertiary mission, this system would work. The fact that where you build ships doesn't really matter reclaims some of the flexibility lost, but it lacks something. However, even with the lack of flexibility, the system is functional and has some appeal that doesn't make it totally bothersome.
You also have little to no control of individual ships. You can control the separate task forces, but you are just as well off watching or just letting the computer sim the encounter and telling you whether you won or lost and how much of your force was destroyed. Hint: you may want to watch the battles sometimes because a large force that should seemingly dominate will sometimes be defeated. Without watching, you have no idea why your powerful TFs died. A better report on the battle's outcome or a way to review battles would have been most welcomed.
Finally, several important things like putting troops in transports and the build queues (there're seperate planetary and military build queues now) are way too hidden or obtuse. On the same note, some information that is places up front is more flavor than function.
Overall this is a decent game that suffers from a few UI and design flaws. It still manages to capture the fun of the 4X genre despite going further away from what made the original MOO a fun game.
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