What this game needs is better maps and deeper exploration mechanics. Period. Bigger maps, smaller maps, stranger maps. Oceanside beaches, radioactive jungles, middle of an abandoned city, or a flatworld. What it's got is a stale "plateau" setup where you can only build on a series of islands-on-land, and when you've done it once you've done it for every game. The mission sites are the same problem; interesting the first time, but the same exact ones every game after that. If you've beaten the scrapyard expedition once, there are zero changes to it for any future attempts, no alternate expedition maps, no different challenges. The tech tree is anemic as well. Barely anything to get worked up over. Instead of a sense of wonder and real civilization building, you're left with a few absolutely necessary techs that honestly you should have started the game with for how critical they are, and the rest is entirely forgettable. Crop varieties offer barely any x factor unless you're really into roleplaying having food variety. Progression, as a whole, is majorly uninspiring. The basic citybuilding mechanics are... fine. But the game doesn't offer anything you won't find done better by Sierra Studios citybuilders over 20 years ago, despite using almost exactly the same design philosophy. And that's before factoring in the stupid plateau mechanic. It almost feels like it's a multiplayer RTS with no multiplayer. Like they took Starbound 2 and one map pack and called it a day. Until they figure out how to design fun and interesting maps, add depth to their explorations so it's not one-and-done, and do more with their tech/progression systems like seeds and renewable sites and such... I do not recommend this game to city builder enjoyers.
