This is a tabletop game.

[Gorecorpse]

It should be obvious, but apparently is not, so here it is: for the good or for the worst, this is a tabletop game.

Judging by the gameplay videos and overall comments/reviews, people seem to not realize or acknowledge the relevance of this aspect, so I want to point it out for discussion or advising.

Considering this, it is not a surprise to me a lot of players don't like the game or don't understand it. You can't just neglect putting effort in every decision you take. One particular comment I read stated how bad was the menu system, because you spend too much time browsing menus. I didn't understand it at first, because I though the menus were great, and then I realized the player was referring to the game itself, since most part of it you're examining stats, items and movement (in a very elegant interface by the way).

However, in Wild Bastards this is not just like item micromanagement and character build found in most RPGs (which I find boring and is not my taste). In Wild Bastards you're making choices that are the game itself, like sorting your cards and consulting your reference cards every turn in a tabletop game. You're making decisions.

I love this game, and this is majorly because I love tabletop games. I always take my time to elaborate an efficient play. That's why I also noticed how bad people are playing this game. If you wanna have fun and succeed you really need to strategize which planet to go, who's beaming down, and what are you gonna do with your items. On that note there are two aspects I find most interesting and beautifully designed:

1 - Abundance of resources
It may not seem at first, but the game provides LOTS of resources. However, you must be careful not to waste them. Don't equip an item prematurely during the Warp screen, save the choice for when you're in the planet,. That way you won't risk having that Outlaw scatter with the item. Actually you may even reconsider how you're going to use it when you're in the planet and take a glimpse of the opportunities and threats.

Even an Outlaws life is a resource to be considered. Instead of risking the lives of an entire group, you can just send one Outlaw, try to clear a planet/get whenever you can, and if don't succeed, maybe that's ok, depending on how important this Outlaw is for you or for this particular run. Maybe you already have a potion, so why risk having a group injured clearing a difficult planet when you can just sacrifice an Outlaw?

2 - Open movement among units
Whenever you decide what to do in a planet, do not make every move at once. You can disengage a bunch, move a single unit to activate a powerup, use the other to fight a roadblock showdown and leave another Outlaw waiting for the result. Depending on the aftermath you decide what to do next. I see lot's of people on Youtube blindly moving bunches to roadblocks or wasting turns moving entire bunches back and forth. No wonder there are so many complaints about RGN when in reality people are not taking advantage of unit movement every turn.

It is amazing to me this has not been discussed so far on Steam aside from a small comment in an unrelated Feud system topic. I could go on and on about how the tabletop features are amazing and integral to the game.

[brain sells]

That's a good take on it and I too love tabletop games.

I think the thing that throws people off is that they sort of expected a lot of similarities between VB and WB and they are quite different. I think the biggest ones are that VB emphasizes ship exploration and danger and that's really cool. The combat however is lackluster and lacks variety and creativity because you can use the same two guns each round. WB forces people to get out of their comfort zone and use weapons and playstyles they might not used to and there is discomfort at first, but it is for the best. WB forced me to use more than the same characters and rewards me for mastering all of them. It makes the combat very interesting when there are essentially 13 ways to play the game.

So WB goes all in on the combat and character interactions whereas VB emphasizes exploring unknown and dangerous spaceships which is a different feel.