This is a fairly solid, decently balanced space trading sim. You plan out slipways between planets such that they share resources to grow your empire. On "Regular" difficulty it's fairly difficult to lose but still maintains some tension through the early years of a session. There's some good variation with the races and the researches that you can do. A pretty fun, casual game that you can play for a couple of hours at a time
I see some criticisms of it being "too random" and I disagree to some extent because I haven't played much of the higher difficulties. For the most part, that IS the challenge. You have resource deficiencies early on because of it but there are ways especially in the late game to make up for this though they are expensive. When you solve problems with your planets by building overly complex routes that somehow end in you making up for not having minerals by sending it from another planet that you fed with people by growing and sending grain from somewhere else fed by robots that are built in a forgeworld mined by the people on the deficient planet, you feel a wave of satisfaction. The key is building what you need without thinking and hopelessly trying to solve every deficiency early on. You can let some aspects fester for a bit for rewards a few years down the line
The last few updates added a lot of QoL changes so the game is pretty solid right now. Lot of excellent improvements on pinning, overlays for helping you find planets etc. It's a really solid, fun, casual time!
I see some criticisms of it being "too random" and I disagree to some extent because I haven't played much of the higher difficulties. For the most part, that IS the challenge. You have resource deficiencies early on because of it but there are ways especially in the late game to make up for this though they are expensive. When you solve problems with your planets by building overly complex routes that somehow end in you making up for not having minerals by sending it from another planet that you fed with people by growing and sending grain from somewhere else fed by robots that are built in a forgeworld mined by the people on the deficient planet, you feel a wave of satisfaction. The key is building what you need without thinking and hopelessly trying to solve every deficiency early on. You can let some aspects fester for a bit for rewards a few years down the line
The last few updates added a lot of QoL changes so the game is pretty solid right now. Lot of excellent improvements on pinning, overlays for helping you find planets etc. It's a really solid, fun, casual time!