Weird design choice, should probably put a warning in red letters that leaving the page means you can't buy the $5 trial anymore.
I still wish you could play for free but with the caveat that you can't found cities, enter construction mode, or manage empires, only join existing empires and operate/design vehicles and ships.
I still wish you could play for free but with the caveat that you can't found cities, enter construction mode, or manage empires, only join existing empires and operate/design vehicles and ships.