I find Ascendancy's space combat , ship and planet building to be much more fun then MOO's. Though I addmit planet building becomes a pain later on. Plus ascendancy was a much prettier game
MOO has a much better A.I and things like its diplomacy feature trade,non-aggresion packs etc.. is just way cooler.
If I could combine the best of both those games
throw in a dash of multi-player and I would have the ultimate 4x Strategy game :evil: mwhaaa!!!