Well the Caps have always been a staple currency in the Fallout universe so I think it's safe to say that they are two different denominations of coin. Red=1 and Blue=5 is my guess.

And here I was thinking: "Why 3 decks? Why not dual or triple cards like in Arkham Horror?". Because then you won't actually KNOW that a certain effect WILL come up for a certain type of planet. As in that Weapons Factory card you're hoping for when invading an industrial planet might be flipped up to eradicate half of another players invasion force when landing on a hazardous planet. Even more randomness in the Distant Suns-ish X-plore aspect.

I for one would rather see a Star TREK version of TI3/TI4 than a Star WARS one.
SW only really have two sides: Jedi/Sith; Empire/Rebels and so on.
ST on the other hand have a good abundance of races that have been shifting alliance-constellations plenty enough to fit better into the Twilight Imperium mechanics. Plus Klingons are badass!

Oh, I linked the "old" Cards, but yeah. The first guy had the idea of choices:
https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1831449/distant-suns-replacement-mod-works
 

Well the problem is a lot of people think of the community as a single individual that wants a specific thing. Communities being composed by different people, often want different things. Many of those things are even contradictory to each other. 

It seems FFG is trying to drastically reduce mechanical bloat and the resulting constant rulebook checking in order to improve game-flow. It is good game-design, but I am not sure it is what the TI community wants.      
 
Every planet except home-worlds and Mecatol Rex

Well no distant suns but I am looking at the planet and their traits. Cultural Industrial, and Hazardous. I can see a "distant sun" type expansion with a deck. When you go to a new planet pull out a card and if it has the corresponding trait icon you resolve that effect. So you can expect bad stuff to happen on hazardous planets so you know to avoid them if necessary. Which is better than the RNG from the last on. There was probing and razing but that was clunky to say the least.

I for one would rather see a Star TREK version of TI3/TI4 than a Star WARS one.
SW only really have two sides: Jedi/Sith; Empire/Rebels and so on.
ST on the other hand have a good abundance of races that have been shifting alliance-constellations plenty enough to fit better into the Twilight Imperium mechanics. Plus Klingons are badass!

[obligatory I took second place with The Winnu last game they're not that bad post]
That being said, I think the proposition to give them access to anyone one tech opens the flood gate for absolute abuse. While I agree Cruiser II would absolute fix what is seen as the "Sardak Start" in my playgroup. I think that this is a balancing mechanic against them. [Incoming Anecdotal Evidence] I held Rex the entire game, and only through keep away and over expansion on my part did I manage to only take 2nd place. Hegemonic Trade Policies is absolutely absurd. I understand that without Cruiser II they don't really have a chance to get there at any decent speed. But the threat of you taking Rex so early without influence is a potent one. One that will make players either break their bank trying to remove the token for themselves crippling them for a turn, or forcing them to park expeditionary forces just to slow you down.
While this post will most likely surprise no one but I think they're fine as is.

MagBlast... Second ed, I believe. Sadly not the edition I have.

We don't currently know when the release date is going to be. The Amazon listing is probably just a placeholder date and is not a reliable indication of when it will be available.

Thing is too, while those others are out having a private conversation, everyone else could be plotting their demise around the game board.

With distant suns you can also use the planet traits for them, Industrial can have green and hazardous can have red so you won't be blindsided like you would have in 3rd ed.

The first time I'll play it as written, but I always add a house rule that I've stolen from Fief 1429. On your turn, as an action, you can spend a Strategy command counter to leave the room with 1 other player and have a private, 90 second conversation. 

I'll get this started... my Mentak victory versus Nekro (to the left), Saar (to the right) and Ghosts (opposite). A sweet victory stolen at the end by paying 10 resources with just 5TGs (mirror computing woop woop!) because I totally nailed strategy card selection getting beuracracy at the right moment. Ahhh felt so good!!
YEEEESSSSSS!!!!

Because playing regularly with the same players, with whom you engage in rigourous debate and negotiation, that sometimes ends disappointingly in the early hours of the morning means that victory dance and song are often neglected...
 
Worry no more. Post your amazing victories here and we will be an avid and appreciative audience. 

Haha - I'll contribute!  The Hacan player opposite me narrowly missed winning by scoring three victory points for the huge number of planets he controlled.  He was likely to score that objective the following round.  I was able to steal victory before then by scoring several points.  First, I used action cards to hijack the galactic senate and dredge up the Crown of Emphidia political agenda.  The Hacan player was elected, making him the owner of the crown and its one victory point.  Having taken Warfare II as one of my strategy cards (it was a 4 player game), I then broke through his fleet and on the following action used a Cruiser with stasis capsules to fly a ground force three spaces through a wormhole, steal one of his artifact planets, and gain the Crown of Emphidia in the process.  It all came together!

It would be very cool if they made a Fallout themed boardgame using the World of Warcraft boardgame mechanics they made a couple of years ago...
Edit = Wow... those a couple of years ago I wrote... are 12 years ago... how time flies...

So now we can play with 14 players!

If it can be usefull here are images of all races.
 

My God, it's full of stars...

I beg to differ from thy differ. The most literal interpretation, in my brain at least, would be that the Ghosts of Creuss have an innate ability to travel from A Worm Holes to B Worm Holes and that their innate understanding of the Worm Hole physiology, as it were, has led them to discover a way to create Worm Hole openings at will. Wether it is through technology or psychic manipulation, I could not say. All this would not allow any Worm Hole openings to suddenly be truly adjacent, however.
It would probably be simple enough to (re-)state that the adjacency is for movement only but it would also be redundant to do so since it already have been clarified in said FAQ.

We will be hosting two learn to play games of Twilight Imperium 3 on June 17th at Family Time Games. This will be mostly for new players looking to try the game or players looking to understand it better. We are going to be running two games, both will be the special scenario. We can accommodate up to 12 people. Let me know if you're interested or sign up on our meetup group.

Check out this Meetup with Epic Board Game Extravaganza http://meetu.ps/e/CRcLS/tf77n/d

Hey,
It annoys me how when you capture a city, it's just destroyed. Come on! I just captured a city, and the best I can do with it is COMPLETELY and UTTERLY destroy it?!
So I propose an optional rule to 'puppet' a city.
After winning a battle when attacking a city, a player may choose NOT to destroy the city, or anything in its outskirts. Instead, they may place a 'puppeted' token (idk what this would be, just find some unused token of the player's color to use) on the city, instead of getting any Loot. It is now a Puppeted City. Puppeted Cities contribute trade and coin to your civilization, but cannot perform actions during your city management phase. Wonders in the Puppeted City outskirts have NO effect.
If the civilization that owned the city originally recaptures the city, they get it back as a normal city, NOT puppeted.