Ok so i have played about 60 multiplayer games and i have a win ratio of about 70%
Im quite sure i understand 90% of this game already and think im in the position to give some useful feedback.
Right now this game truely has some big balancing issues which isnt really suprising at this stage.
Races:
From what ive seen expansives are the most overpowered ones. I have picked them a lot and won the most times with them. Also in most games i play 50% of people choose expansives.
Scientific seems to be the 2nd most used and quite okay. Their 50% sabotage makes them quite good over time and the possibility to produce basically anything away from your HQ makes sabotages even less effective.
Robotics are rarely used and that for good reason. They dont have the extra claims of expansives and need to stick more to their HQ which makes them suffer from sabotage heavily.
Scavengers i cannot say much about, since i havent used them myself much, Usually there is 1 playing it in each 8 player game who sticks at the carbon and loses quite early after annoying the others.
Solution to Balance Races:
The extra claims are just too strong and because of that expansives might need a nerf like increased cost of upgrades or something similar.
Swap the 50% sabotage and "extra resources under HQ traits" of Robotics and Scientific around to buff robotic. (would also make sense that robots cant be sabotaged that easily cause robotlogic
) Also Scientific are naturally less troubled with sabotage due to their "outposting".
For scavengers i cant say much as stated above.
Problems/Bugs:
This is a very hard to explain bug/Problem but ill try my best (sry for wall of text)^^
Usually when the leading player buys out the worst one his own stock drops for a few second after he purchased the other one.
His whole company basically becomes bigger while his stockprice rapidly drops right at the purchase. Then the next 10-20 seconds his price stabilizes to the point were it should be. This is a huge problem because it can lead to him being bought out in the few seconds after he purchased the other guy.
When a player buys stock of all other companys early (just a few stocks not a whole company) and all stock of his own company he usually wins even with bad late game, because of this bug.
If all players buy stock of all other companys the one who buys out someone else first loses right after.
Example:
Player A Stockprice 20$
Player B Stockprice 2$
Player C Stockprices 15$
Player C had good earlygame and bought most stocks of player A and player B but has a bad production and isnt upgraded fully.
Now Player A buys out player B, Player C gets a lot of cash for the stocks he had of player B.
Then the weird thing happens: Player A (who now owns B ) price drops to 15& right after the purchase. Player C quickly realizes that, sells anything he has and with the Cash he got from Player As buyout he can buyout player A who also owns be 1 second after Player B lost, winning the game without player A having any chance to see that coming or to react.
Due to this bug i have won many many games which went bad for me just by being quick on the buyout button right after the player that deserves the win did the same
Other Problems:
-There are some fields with aluminum AND iron on them. I dont know if its a bug or not, but those fields are so incredible strong that they basically grant you a win if you own them in earlygame
-You cant see if a steelmill was build on a low iron or on nothing until you scrap it
-You cant checkout Offworld Prices until you build a offworld market, same for patent lab and patents (or can you?!)
-Offworld prices usually force you to buy 100 of whatever sells for a lot instead of selling what you have a lot.
(i rather sell 100 fuel which i buy for 200$ for 64k than i sell 100 water which i could sell for 1$ for 11k)
-A very big issue i feel is that you dont really get all factors that influence the prices which some guy should tell you step by step in the campaign/Tutorial
Storymode
-oh Storymode
Teamplay Problems:
-Energy Sharing is bugged or atleast very unclear to understand.
-There is no Team-only Chat in the game so you cant discuss strategy without opponents seeing.
-many more, but because of above 2 playing it isnt fun, so i couldnt check them enough to post here.
General Suggestions:
The Basic Concept of the game is great and i like it, but after just 20 games it already felt kinda boring, there is nothing new to explore. And after 60 games you realize its always just the same thing you upgrade your stuff as fast as you can and then scrap whats cheap and build whats not. ofc hacker arrays, patents and sabotage and stuff influence that a bit but its nothing really facinating. Ofc you can get better and perfect your playstyle and reactions but still it just feels there is something missing.
I´d like to see the colony involved more, they basically dont matter
I´d like to see special missions pop up, like first player to produce 2000 steel gets 4 extra claims, which lets you choose to focus on the market or on the mission.
I´d like to see more complicated Goods that require Tier 2 goods which are worth a shitton of money. (Like Machinery made out of Robotics Steel and Carbon)
I´d like to see more and different vehicles flying around and good reasons for vehicles being different.
I´d like to have maps were some resources dont exists.
As i said i like the game, but i still regret to have paid 40 bucks for it, its just far from being worth that at this stage it might will later but as the empty lobbys show many people decide its too expensive and you should sell it for less in my opinion which will give you more players that can give feedback.
Hope my feedback helps to improve the game and ill try to update whatever i get into my mind later.
Cheers
-Raegwyn