The reason why it (the Sins empire tree) got cluttered on large maps is because things get auto-pinned by default. You can turn that off, and only add the planets/fleets you really care about to it. At that point it functions like it does on a small map even on a large one.
Yeap, I tweaked it every way possible that I saw at the time and kept it minimized at all times because I couldn't stand it. I used the bigger pop-up interfaces on the planets to go from planet to planet. Also the "Find Idle Unit" button helped me a lot. Still, even minimized as much as possible, I didn't like it and wanted even that to go away.
There are many games out that simply allow you to turn off the whole UI, (like for when you want to take a screen shot). The game still function this way, but for most players many actions are straight up Impossible without turning the UI back on. I try my best in games I want to dive into to learn the hot key shortcuts and play as much of what-ever game it is without the UI at all.
I still think Elemental needs to shy away from this particular mechanism or to refine it even more then Sins does.
MY EYES!!!! I LOOKED DIRECTLY AT THE BLUE HIGHLIGHTING!
LoL...ok, cross Light Blue off the list of possible Highlight colors to use 
Thanks, Man.
I see I wasn't the only person surprised by the highlighting. A little bit of a tangent, but when the beta's further along, say in Beta 3, it might be useful if we had a way to start an advanced game. Starting with 20-30 cities and a mass of units. It could be as simple as Stardock providing a save for us to use.
This is true, a saved game on a bigger map with a substantial starting empire might be useful for testing. Then again it's quite possible (if the current system stays the way it is) that we won't even be able to have Maps large enough to support Huge Games without either Modding it in, or waiting for the 64Bit version of Elemental to hit. The "Clutter" as I call it might not bother some people. Some people might even think I'm bad-mouthing Sins, which I'm not, I love Sins just as much as the other Sins fans here. I just didn't like that aspect of it, the "Empire Tree". I prefer the old school, you got your own screen for it, Empire Status Screen, like Gal Civ 2 had. I could pull it up and then list it by Planets, or Fleets, or by Population, or by etc etc, and you could set it up that way. THAT'S THE WAY I'd like to see us go with Elemental. I should have brought all this up a month or two ago but I knew it would be premature then. Now it seems I may be too late entirely without having to rely on my (and others) modding skills to kill the dreaded "Huge Empire Mess Tree", as I've dubbed it.
It seems to me that the beginning portions of the game will naturally get the most testing because everyone has to start a new game in order to test. So the majority of the interface feedback will occur when there isn't much going on. If we had a way to test the later stages without needing to play an entire game it might be easier to avoid what RavenX is worried about.
When we are further along in Beta 2 or maybe even starting Beta 3 someone should politely request they give us a saved game to start from with a substantial Kingdom/Empire already founded so we can test later stages of play. I agree %100. Also though, we have to wait until all the proper content is added, which we may never see until release. They do have a Internal Testing Team and their "Jobs" are Quite Different then ours. They have their own "Internal Vision" of the game they want Elemental to be. As such, I'm sure there are some "Core mechanics" (as there have been in the past I.E. Sov Death = Game Over) that None Of Us here on the forums will get Any Choice on the metter because it goes against their set plan for their vision of Elemental. I respect Stardock for that. They have a Vision and they will put out That Vision, while still taking what we say into "consideration". A lot of companies wouldn't do that, or they'd just pretend through a couple PR guys to be "really listening" to us. Stardock has PROVEN that they DO LISTEN to us. So, we always have hope.
Also, I want to see a game with a Truly Epic sized Map. A randomly generated world with enough space and resources that every faction could support a large-ish empire of up to 10 cities with each empire/kingdom having a standing army of at least 50,000 troops each. Show me a map like that (because those are the maps I play the most, that take weeks to beat) that I will play the most after I made the Dragonlance Mod and then make my "Raven's Personal Fantasy Wars" Mod which will include all the more famous factions/races from as much fantasy literature and TV shows as I can find.
Off Topic:
Imagine a game where one Faction is all the Evil Side from Lott, another faction is all the Good Side forces from LotR, it will also have the the Dragon Armies from Dragonlance as a faction, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table as a good faction, Mordred, Arthurs son, will lead the Evil Arthurian faction, the Skexis from the Dark Crystal will be a faction, the Solamnic Knights from Dragonlance will have a faction. I'll be taking suggestions of more famouse fantasy empires and kingdoms to use. Maybe a faction made of Disney Kingdoms, one for Good and one for Evil. The good one can be lead by Sovereign Mickey the Wizard while the evil faction can be lead by the Dark Queen from Sleeping Beauty. The Ultimate mish-mash of fantasy kingdoms and empires going at it to see who's the best of the best. This is what I did with my private mod for Gal Civ 2. I was fighting the Borg (Star Trek), the Asgard (Stargate) , the Shadows (Babylon5), and a bunch of others from various TV series, all in the same game, all behaving realistically as their TV counterparts. I want to do the same thing only with Fantasy Kingdoms for Elemental. Technically I'll be making two mods, but the Dragonlance Mod will be my first (and Major) project. My "Private Mod" I will describe here on the forums when it's done and IF people are interested I will release through the game for people to download.
If you're lucky I might not charge $1 through Pay-Pal for it...hehe J/K about the Pay Pal part. I doubt Stardock wants their customers making money selling Mods they make for Elemental.
