I played quite a lot the last few days and mostly focused on filing bugs. Just wanted to step back slightly from the 'find problems' mode and say that the game is looking pretty damn good as a game.

I play these kinds of games first and foremost as escapist power fantasies. The art style works very well with that, and so do the little text blurbs about planets, races, environments, etc. The planet management aspect has just enough going on to give that feeling of control without having so much to do that it gets tedious. Different races having different planetary preferences gives me a little mini-puzzle to work on, and also provides secondary reasons to go to war.

I enjoy playing the humans as a kind of 'hard mode'. Really like the complete lack of an Earth in the game, and humans being one of the elder races. I like that humans are some of the worst possible colonists.

Technology progression feels pretty good. On the 99 star map, I started stomping around with autofire lasers and wrapped up the game with doomstars. Hit all the technology at about the same time I hit all of the stars. Normally that is an area that is often 'off' in other games, with the tech running out before running out of space, or winning the game well before the end of the tech tree. If options for larger maps are added, please also add options to slow technology as well.

I like the addition of food and metal as competition with factories and labs. It would be nice if I could see the planets fertility and richness while choosing production, for now I mouse over those installations and check the tooltip. It took me a little while to realize that shipping Orthin colonists to an Iceball enabled framing there, I like that interaction and hope there are others along those lines.

Metal might be too easy to come by relative to the demands placed on it; my larger ships did not scale up in cost as much as my metal production scaled with tech and ended the game with well over 100k stockpiled despite a dozen worlds cranking doomstars out with double shipyards.

I'm kind of hoping some kind of android/robot colonist is on the table once those later AI techs are implemented, that might be cool.

A bit more use for outposts might be nice. Maybe the human one should produce food, and take away that food tech they get at the start? Once my first colony is down, that outpost doesn't matter in the slightest to me.

Anyway, the game looks and feels good. Well done folks.

Thanks! I think things are starting to come together, and I'm excited about the upcoming diplomacy and event additions.

I like the idea of a late-game tech for robot colonists (which would be built like ground units, consume no food and have no morale, produce only wrenches (no coin or science) and don’t reproduce). We talked about something like this a long time ago, but I had forgotten about it. Thanks for the reminder.

I want to include more trade mechanics (such as a station Spaceport module that boosts trade income), and an Outpost might be one platform for that.

I've also realized that kept just bugging you about bugs and didn't really say anything good.
The atmosphere of the game is great, and the gameplay is getting better pretty much with every update (and specially with the latest one)!

Thanks! We appreciate the bug reports too.

The big planet on the start screen is the home planet of the race you've played the previous time. Nice touch!
Took me playing three races to realize.