Hi,

Today I will cover the interface part.

1)
First of all, the game skin is upgraded. You will not be able to change this.

2)
The left menu is different, you will be able to use the classic (current) left menu if you wish though. Selection between the two will be possible through Options.

3)
There is a right hand menu. Currently, you will find there the live chat and live events.
In the future, you will also be able to place there your own menu (we might eventually implement it before launch)

4)
The live events, will automatically pop for you any new events of your empire, regardless of the page you currently are. No page refresh will be needed.

5)
The live chat is the upgraded version of current ally discussion. Available from all pages, you will be able to discuss with your ally buddies from all game pages.
In the future, we will add more live communication.

6)
Mobile interface (Compact Menu) will not have the right hand menu - the live events/chat. However, our new left menu is designed to actually work WELL with mobiles. So, if you got a slightly big mobile screen, you won't actually need the compact menu.

You also should not worry much about bandwidth -> bandwidth consumption is ridiculously low, no matter which interface you use.

7)Some key differences of new left menu:
-No research button. Reaching the research lab is now only possible through top navigation bar.
-No planet resources button. Reaching the Resources screen of a planet is now only possible if you click any of the resources below the top navigation bar.

All in all, the upgraded interface should do exactly this; upgrade your experience. We have worked a lot on it and we also took care of many details. At first, you will need some time to adjust but it should worth it.