First game comments & suggestions

[dwharper]

I’ve just completed my first game with a failure to build the laser. Here are some thoughts & suggestions…
Mechanics:
1. Labels on hover over of conveyor attach points or some way to better identify them.
2. Labels on cargo bay conveyor points. (Are the three that spit out regolith the same or do they filter based on predominant minerals?) If not, would be nice if they did. Why not just make them all generic and let us pick what they deliver?
3. Allow for storage containers to be locked to prevent them being used for other things. (I’d like to have a strategic reserve that only I can release).
4. Add alert when colonists are nearing death. Tell us the cause of death. (This is my most major turn-off of the game so far. Every engineer I hired died very quick deaths while all others survived the entire game. I want to know why!)
5. (Future) Allow cooperative play.
6. Allow factories to gradually increase efficiency even without workers. Have workers make it gain faster but make gains stick. 15% cap is major turn off.
7. Allow for research to be sold for gold. Once we finish the tech tree all that research is completely useless. Should be able to sell it. Even if all techs not complete, sometimes money is the critical resource and I’d gladly trade it.
8. Allow for pop up alerts for certain events that we must acknowledge (i.e. mineral pile exhausted, O2 & H2O early warnings). Make it configurable so we can turn off if we don’t want the popup.

Story Line:
1. The earth should not die completely and end the game with a laser failure. Make a failure lead to a rebuild the earth story line and/or Mars becomes dominant in the solar system. I’ll play again and win, then probably never play again or only once in a great while. If the story has multiple avenues, it will be fun to play over and over to follow all the paths.
2. Add Mars as an earth competitor. Allow us to pick which to support or attempt to walk a tightrope supporting both.
3. In later game stages, add an asteroid belt community as a further competitor.
4. Instead of all or nothing laser, break it into multiple stages/powers. Each stage reduces the size of the asteroid and influences how much damage is done to earth. If all stages are completed the earth is saved but if not perhaps a piece of the asteroid hits the moon or Mars in later game phases.
5. Allow for colonization of additional craters.
6. Add something besides the “you failed” lecture at the end. How about some cool video of the impact and a burning earth. I also don’t like the “it’s all your fault” messaging. The entire human race failed, why blame one person??