I do want to clarify that by "suck" I do NOT mean the features themselves are poor or bad. I am saying that it is something that adversely affects the player relative to the older version. This gives the player new challenges and such to work with which by itself is a good thing.
Ditto with removing unbalanced weapon elements. It is a good thing gameplay wise.
I am simply trying to point out that the majority of the new elements make life harder for the player, without enough corresponding benefits to balance things out.
I LOVE the game itself and feel like you added a lot of depth which is awesome. It is so well done that it is kind of painful for it to be so frustratingly difficult. This is by far the best such game I have ever seen, and works perfectly for the phone platform, or small tablet.
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I do believe that increasing weapon selection with expanded Starbase slots and merchant is a pretty good idea that helps the player customize their strategy somewhat. So many times, you find some weapons but just not enough to implement a particular strategy.
It is also very difficult to find the really good weapons, even in the 3rd and 4th maps.
I also believe that making the starting money less variable would be helpful too. Having 1000 in hard, 1500 medium, 2000 easy seems more reasonable to getting off to a usable start, but still forces careful selection of items and does not allow a full loadout. There are two other ways to effectively increase starting funds to consider below:
First, I recommend having the enemy large ship Factories delayed about 5 extra turns on the first map only. Right now there is not enough time to start exploring on Hard before you can get shut down hard by a roving large ship. Being able to explore, find caches, plink out fighters and clear early sectors would also go a long way towards making medium and hard a lot more playable, without needing to hugely increase the starting money.
Secondly, seeding the first map with extra caches within the first few sectors of the start would also be beneficial and effectively increase starting capability while retaining the "go find stuff" feel.
Anyways, keep up the great work and I did not mean for this to feel so harsh.
