[Beta 2] General impressions ... it's tough!

[HangarPilot]

Full disclosure, I normally play the "A Small Hope" start so I can get straight into the action. I haven't played "Basic Platform" in forever which is clearly what station mode was modeled after...

Getting started is tough. I saved the game right at the start and have restarted maybe a dozen times. I tried starting on the asteroid and starting in space. Just getting your feet under you is quite the challenge (Medium difficulty).

1) Urgency. There's an urgency to the start because you have to build everything and get it all up and running before running out of O2 or food. There's not enough space to build everything you need so you have to expand immediately. It's already a separate discussion thread, but the terrain often hinders "expansion" and building separate buildings takes extra time (and duplicate facilities).

2) Urgency. Once you get going, derelicts come "fast and furious" ... you have to jump on them because you can't pass up the resources. "Self-sufficiency" isn't really an option as you're dependent on these random encounters for water and other resources not available on your little rock.

3) Urgency. You *have* to get some service going. You'll need to trade for any resources that don't just "fall in your lap" so you need money ... that means you need to offer some kind of service to earn money for trades ASAP.

4) Urgency. I've gotten far enough into the game to get "away missions" and fleet events so I'm scrambling to complete away missions (which I probably shouldn't even be trying to do with only 5 total crew). Sending your combat team on an away mission means no one's available if you happen to get a derelict while they're gone.

All of this leaves me feeling like I'm drinking through a fire hose. If I try to use my "normal" approach to the game, I can't get things built fast enough. If I just spam everything in one small building, I get mental breaks and generally disastrous results.

So what's my take after 10 hours? I "hate" it ... but in the "best" possible way! I'm sucking at it horribly ... yet can't stop playing! I need a total paradigm shift in how I play the game. I need to make better strategic decisions on what to salvage/mine and what to let go. I need to balance away teams versus getting things done at the home base. I need to "manage" everything ... which one could argue is the whole point of a "management" game!?!?

I think you nailed it!

Now personally, I think that "fire hose" could be turned down just a little...
-I'd like the derelicts fewer and slower (I've changed them in the difficulty settings to "rare" but it doesn't really seem to have made an impact).

-I can't quantify it, but it feels like there's not enough hull blocks to create a "useable" space for everything you need right away. Not sure if that's a "balancing issue" that needs adjusting or a "player issue" easily adjusted in the starting resources.

-I'm on the fence on away missions. I mean, I LOVE the missions ... but I've got an alien base, pirate base, and bot base in the system now and I'm getting swamped with distress calls back-to-back. I'd be inclined to throttle that back ... but it could be another "player issue" and I just need to ignore the missions I'm not able to do at the moment.

Once again you've pulled a rabbit out of the hat. Every update is worth the wait and this is no exception. Phenomenal job!