I have been playing this game since April 22nd and thought it would be a good idea to do a weekly update blog for the game. I must admit the first 4 or 5 weeks were a bit boring and it it takes quite a bit of perseverance to build things up because quite frankly there isn't much else to do!
Once you get the Shipyard Skill to Level 12 though that does open up the possibility to build ships which does then make the game a bit more interesting. Be mindful though that each ship requires the full skill level before it can be built and I decided the best ship to build would be explorers. This at least then opens up the possibility of finding new planets, which you need to be doing as quickly as possible.
I was lucky to have found a rare copper planet after a lot of searching and you can see I have an active neighbour to my right. I have used the strategy of exploring as much to that side as possible since there is little competition on the other 3 sides. Though any planets I find will probably be within attack reach of my opponent I thought it was better to potentially grab anything there first and deny them territory, I will have to see if that works out well for me or not.
Once you have the ship production line working the next important thing for me was Mission Control. Being able to launch 3 missions at once is very handy and will speed up the chances of finding any planets. One thing I would change if I was to start exploration again would be to not explore all of the close by squares first. Ships take time to get around and now I am faced with ever increasing wait times due to the increased distances. A better approach would be to alternate near and far but perhaps it all ends up the same anyway but that's my feeling on it.
A new feature added recently is the battle system and there are a lot of blueprints in the shop for instant skill build of various fighting ships. I am not sure if they are worth buying or not and this is the difficult choice facing games players of these type of games. Whilst it is great to buy stuff and get on in a game there is also the satisfaction of not doing so and patiently building up stuff over a long period of time.
I do find it satisfying to do it the slow way without paying for any in game items but it does get frustrating at times and the temptation is always there for a little purchase to boost progress, for now I am resisting the urge. The way games have gone on Steem recently and not knowing how this is going to turn out I am prepared to wait out a little and see where the games goes before investing Steem. The team do seem to be passionate about the game and despite its slow start does show it could have the potential to be a great game.
