A very fun game with lots of potential. Still super addicting with a satisfying game loop at this stage! First time reviewer so here it goes:
For reference, I have 37 hours of play time. I am currently on day 76, maxed at level 40 with over 100 population which costs about $41k a day for pay (at 125% rate. Gotta keep them soldiers happy!). All buildings and upgrades have been unlocked (expect 3 points short of everything in the Tactical Bureau for turrets). I take 30 troops out with me in sector 3. I have all the red tier VI weapons on sectors 1 and 2. Now I need to farm out sector 3!
After this play time, I will certainly be following and playing this game as it updates but will be taking a break until there is new content after I finish farming the red tier sector 3 weapons. The combination of expeditions and base building provide a satisfying game loop where intentional navigation during expeditions finds the materials I need and spending those materials and upgrading my gear and troops leads to a measurable difference when I go back on the battlefield. I've also found a few core fragment combinations that absolutely SLAP enemy troops in the face and are very fun to play. Grenade+Troop suppression combo if you want to make your audio max out but completely erase the red dots on the minimap all at one, Black hole+Troop suppression combo if you want to crowd control the entire battlefield, Phantom+critical strike+weakpoint combo build to MELT health bars. Lots more as well!
Some thoughts/ideas (I am aware this is a freshly released early access game and am just trying to create some open table discussion!):
- Encyclopedia of all the coloured terms in the game without needing to find it on a soldier for it to be explained to me. Maybe these could be hyperlinked so you can float your cursor over them so you can read them? Or just maybe "The State's Leadership Manual" with a list of them. This would also be good for lists of different possible armor affix rolls so I know I’m building the best armor and so I can continue to produce armor until I can perfectly min/max by amor set.
- In addition to this, encyclopedia of different unit types, species, and what their best usual combat or work type specialties are. Maybe gain more information the more you capture and indoctrinate them? "Torture for information" button?
- Difficulty level for combat difficulty also influencing people management and base management. Something like how much loyalty/morale/fear fluctuates. Which leads me to my next thought...
- I don't really feel the impact of loyalty and morale as they change and the only effect I can notice on fear is that I get a warning after sacrificing a bunch of troops to upgrade combatants to the Ultra class, so I feed them so fear reducing salad and we're good to go again. Not sure how to make these more noticeable however I did see that population/soldier control and influence is already being worked on!
- I am a BIG fan of the different production types of stock/continuous, etc. and I think animal farm egg basket/Farming seed box could help the food side of the base management. My transport workers do well gathering things up (however when they go to bed, they seldomly clean up their mess when they wake. (Toddlers, am I right??) but as the Leader, I find it tedious to run around to 12+ farms/animal farms to replace eggs and seeds every 3-5 mins (+100% efficiency buildings really work and are super worth constructing!). Would a tab for farm seeds and animal farm eggs be possible? Somewhere I could put seeds into a box, and part of the farmers duties are to run to the warehouse or a new type of logistics building where they pick up the seeds and plant them? I was thinking something like ordering the seeds and eggs in priority of how you want them to be planted or a tab to just put seeds into every farm from one screen into of running to each farm. Maybe even a threshold type farming system where "when ingredients get to X number, start production" so that you can manage how much of different ingredients are needed since some recipes need different amounts of things?
- Could infested nests be available in sector 1 and 3 like they are in sector 2? I imagine that the Zerg, I MEAN PEMS, WOOPS, would infest each sector and not just sector 2. This might open up more infested nest map options and objective options as well as opportunities to introduce different Zerg types.. I MEAN PEM! dang it, I did it again... Kerrigan would not be pleased with the lack of expansion from her brood mothers.
- Sort by race/species buttons. I want to know how many of each I have. There are some hints in game about certain species being better at work types than others, but I don't want to go through my 100+ troops each time I need to see if I have enough to fill the open work roles that I have. A sort by warrior/combat type would also be very useful when trying to design a military force to bring out with you. Maybe those troops selections could be saved in a loadout? This brings me to my next point:
- Loadout selection before expedition start. There are currently 3 different sets of armor that basically get stronger in each sector. The 3 different sets can really express a person’s different style of play. There are also many weapons to choose from depending on how you like to play. Can we make these more accessible and convenient by adding a loadout out screen after your troop selection screen. Hold escape to bring up your ship screen with your troops, then you go through a Leader armory screen, then LAUNCH!
As stated previously, I am having lots of fun so far with this game. I like managing bases/city building, I like action/rpg/roguelites, and I like space conquests. This game scratches all those itches and more. If you haven’t tried it yet, I would highly recommend the purchase.
