!(Disclaimer: My 145+ hours in this game constitute a thorough exploration of all of the mechanics. I designed a map and custom mythos as well as playing the game itself... As well as a healthy dose of absently running in the background whilst I did other things. I'm a compulsive idler.)!
The game is completely nonsensical. A race whose entire enterprise relies on mining spawns on a chunk of coastal farmland with no workable mining nodes. Choose a good alignment, choose.... lets say elves as your starting race. Get surrounded by other races, good and/or evil, who hate and refuse to interact with elves. Why would these races settle next to each other? Furthermore, why are they not at war? Oh, right. Cus there are no A.I. minor faction wars.
A race/faction who has the racial trait merchant, has 3 cities that spawn nothing but cowardly warriors and dumb scholars. Zero Merchants, Alchemists, Armorers, Smiths, Artisans, etc. Meanwhile, A warrior civilization only has brutal wizards and reckless rouges for purchase. Zero Warriors, Knights, Fighters, Bounty Hunters, Generals, etc. Awesome.
The only thing that really worked in this game was religion, which was tight. But only after I took it upon myself to perfect the base systems from the ground up. Vanilla, it is still poop. Where you are equally likely to get dysentery as you are to get an innate ability to wield flames from a benevolent god who loves you. Most vanilla gods are again, poorly thought out. Ah, yes. I remember the roman god Tardos the roman god of darkness, life, cheese and the archery. Classic god. I think you'll find a god like that in every pantheon. Myelitis, the goddess of civilization, nature, fire and banana flavored ice cream. Trying to get a blessing of strength on your already elite warrior? Well, you have the honor of choosing from, blindness, rugged good looks or +1 to a single city's production of banana flavored Ice cream... Now would be a good time to mention that I do not have a city. But, who am I to question a god. Give me the ice cream.
Every mechanic in this game is so poorly thought out that the game eats itself in an endless cycle. It's a game that is as wide as it is worthless. There is too much that needs to be done to accomplish even the most minute task, and the rewards for your efforts are next to non-existent.
Lets say you want to exploit a resource. First you need a builder class officer. Don't have one? That is okay, it will just take you 4 times as long to build. Not a problem, cus there is nothing else to do at this point in the game except hit end turn. So now that you have assigned an officer you need workers. Specifically builders. Don't have builders? That is ok. It will just take 4 times longer to build. And it isn't like you will have anything else to do at this point in the game except hit end turn. Okay, so now you have workers. 16 turns from now you'll have a fishing sack. Once you have the fishing shack you will get like 5 fish per turn, if it is manned by a worker with the appropriate skill. Now we just need to find some fishermen. Hmm... Our starting race can't fish... and none of our officers can teach fishing... Well... That's ok. We will assign unskilled laborers and eventually (15-90 turns) they will gain a point in fishing. That is ok. It isn't like you will have anything else to do at this point in the game except hit end turn. Yay! They skilled up. Now we get a 20% increase to fish production. That's right folks. 6 fish per turn. But we can ramp that up by upgrading the fishing shack... Oh... Wait... No... We can't. We don't have an architect officer. Hmmm... Well. We did find one 10 towns over. That is ok. Now we just have to send an officer to go recruit them. Oh. They hate the race of all of my officers... That is okay! It will just take 10 times longer. And it isn't like you will have anything else to do at this point in the game except hit end turn. Ok. 100 turns later and we can make... them... an... offer... Oh... They want how much gold?! How can they expect me to pay that much for a level one Arcitect who is blind, dumb and sneaky? I only make 6 fish per turn?! I don't even have that much fish! Ok. We sold all of our supplies and spare organs on the black market. This is totally going to pay off. 16 turns later aaannnddd... it opened another worker slot... Well that is okay. We will just get another worker and and start the training process all over again. 30 turns later and thats right. 8 fish. We are absolutely rolling in it. in 427 turns I'll have enough money to upgrade my tower to level 1. Which is not a problem, cus there is nothing else to do at this point in the game except hit end turn. Etc.
This is yet another game solely focused on making every available option as unappealing, ineffective and boring as humanly possible in a pathetic attempt to "balance" the game while keeping it "difficult". Poorly balancing games leads to players farming exploits instead of actually engaging with the games mechanics creators spend their time and money obsessing over. This method of game construction leads to mandatory meta-gaming. So why bother adding more options to the game at all if it can only realistically be played and enjoyed one way? And artificial difficulty frustrates and bores players into abandoning the game entirely. Unless you are dark souls, but they spent millions in marketing to brainwash people into believing that beating their game somehow makes you a real "gamer". But that is an entirely different thing.
If you love slow grind-fests with graphics slightly better then Microsoft excel where nothing is ever great. But, if you try really hard, and wait long enough. Things can be slightly less bad. Then this, this is half the game for you. Cus is isn't finished and never will be.
