Hey, new player here! I’ve been playing for a week now, and I want to share my experience and ask some questions about certain features. I’ve read through parts of this forum, the roadmap, and some posts about other beginners’ experiences so I wouldn’t ask the same questions, but since I’ve only been here for a week, please correct me if I’m wrong about anything!
First of all, I wanted to say that this game is truly a hidden gem, and I’m mad I didn’t find it earlier. The main concept is really unique, and I fell in love with it immediately. I’ve seen a lot of posts saying that the early gameplay is very slow and empty, but I had a completely different experience. I’ve spent the whole week in Google Sheets trying to find high-demand products that I can already make at T1 and sell for a good price. I tried PRUNplanner, but didn’t like it that much, so I ended up using it more as a testing tool to check whether I’d made any miscalculations. So yeah, the core gameplay is amazing!
Besides that, I’ve seen a lot of beginners complaining about the learning curve and unintuitive UI, and that wasn’t my experience at all. The tutorial is great, and the whole modular UI is easy to use. That said, I think the only thing I missed in the tutorial was more practice with the various commands and identifiers - everything else is already clear enough.
Now to the main topic: there’s one feature I really miss, or maybe I just haven’t discovered it yet. I understand that the dev team is small and that there are already so many planned features, so I don’t want to sound like someone who’s played for a week and already knows how to make a better game. It’s just the biggest thing that came to mind, and I’d like to hear the community’s and the developers’ opinions on it:
Right now, I see that the game has a lot happening, both economically and politically. There’s a lot of information and numbers under the hood, but I feel like it’s always hidden somewhere, and the game lacks a good way to present it in a more engaging way. I think some kind of bulletin board would make the game feel much more immersive. I searched the forum for similar features and found something from a 2015 devlog, but I’m not sure whether it was removed or abandoned.
It could add some missing context and world-building to the game: advertisements, grants, corporation information and recruitment, maybe even player- or government-sponsored newspapers with weekly reports. I understand that most of these things currently happen on Discord, but part of this game’s appeal is that it’s all contained within a single browser window. So my question is: is Discord intended to remain the long-term solution for this kind of interaction?
I understand that the core playerbase is more interested in production and trading, and that a feature like this doesn’t directly expand the core gameplay mechanics. Still, I feel like a more alive world could attract a larger playerbase - people who simply want to immerse themselves in a large, living universe.
Anyway, this is almost a dream game for me, so I’m happy to play it in its current state, support it financially, and watch it grow. Have a good day, everyone!