I've kind of sat back and read this thread for quite awhile now.
I'm surprised no one noticed that I hadn't chimed in.
As others could tell you, they ended up making me a playtester over on the SDS site - but that is not the same as selling one's soul. I still am looking forward to NA, and hope that some day it sees fruition. (REALLY! Just check out the number of posts...)
And the reason I have stayed quiet is I wanted to see where this would finally end up. I kind of had a feeling, but really wanted to make sure.
I was playing Starfire back in the baggies, and have followed it since. But I am horribly computer illiterate so what little I knew of the SF boards were the fiction I could con my Computer Eng buddies at ISU to print out for me, or the ECs they would bring me.
I was blissfully unaware of the 'social issues', as I prefer to think of them.
And it does bother me to read what is here. Because I know some of the names from what I read long ago, and the others I know from this site and like/respect.
And I will say that with a large number of the things that have been written in this thread, I agree.
Solar is a huge rule set. Really big. One of my big soap boxes has been getting something a new player could play. Still working on it. There is a Quick Start Rules set as a free download now so you don't have to start with a 400 page block of text/tables. There will be more in that vein. My public soapbox for a long time has been to make SF something folks could play without digesting a huge book to start. All my kids/wife started on the 'hallowed baggies' I still keep at home.
SF doesn't have an author like Weber anymore. Doubt it will ever be that way again. But most games don't have that luxury either...
And the huge jump in size occured, kind of, between Galactic and Ultra. Elite for GSF added a bunch to it. Ultra grew on it. Solar is an attempt to take the issues that cropped up in Ultra over the years and deal with them -while adding a story to it. I will admit, there has been more rules work than story.
Regardless, the rules are large. But so was 3e/R with all its attendant supplements/packs back in the day.
I actually prefer Galactic/Ultra over 3e, but that is because at heart I am a storyteller. 3e kind of locked you into the same story over and over. Galactic/Ultra don't have that so I can go where I want - at least a little more. (Of course, for those that might know the rules and have read any of my Nemesis fiction - we went a LONG ways from the standard rules...) I also didn't have to keep track of a dozen different books, printed out items, etc to play.
And for Matt, I am so glad that you maintained and brought back Kurt's stories. But for all the 'Red vs Blue' you say - anything can be that way if you don't make it your own. Even 3e will see both sides with the same options for weapons, ships, etc...
But Kurt could take that 'sameness/red v blue' and turn it into something else. I try to do the same with my Nem. fiction and in our games at home. It is all in what you put into it. Steve had awesome fiction (EDIT -still does, just not enough...I know, I have the same problem...). And it wasn't because he had awesome rules. Its because he wasn't limited by them. Fluff does hook people. But it doens't just appear. And you can't just generate it because you would like to (I only know that to well....). Authors who create that sort of stuff...well, it isn't just about generating a bunch of text...
Red v Blue is from the person running the games and not creating a story for them. Not the rules themselves (in most cases...).
But I won't argue with feature creep. It has been the death of many things. And I may get in hot water for saying so, but I do agree. An old prof. of mine once said the greatest enemy of good - is 'better'. It has turned a lot of fun games into huge masses of rules that appeal to a small group of players. Much like Aurora. You really have to want to deal with the mass of complexity to want to get into it. And it isn't easy. And SF is currently pretty heavy on it.
I don't know the solution, but I will say I have been listening. And the first step to a solution is to admit there is a problem.
EDIT
And to Hawkeye, congrats on buying the set. It is pricey these days. Hope you have as much fun as the rest of us have with it...