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I like the idea of the game, the atmosphere is pretty cool, even for a text-based game. There’s definitely something there.

That being said, at the moment the game feels a bit too random, and the gameplay is more about rolling dice than making educated decisions.

The debt mechanic is a good idea, but the interest rate was so high that trying to pay anything back felt trivial. I made a 15K payment, but the interest rate was so insane that after a couple of turns my debt was even higher than before I made the payment. There also doesn’t seem to be any downside to just letting it balloon out of control, so paying it off just felt like throwing money away.

I also didn’t really understand the difference between the zones or what “rich,” “average,” or “poor” meant. I’m guessing it has to do with the prices of goods, but since fuel and traveling don’t cost anything, moving somewhere doesn’t feel like a strategic decision and more like something you do when you get bored. Since I also have no way of knowing what prices will be somewhere else, it removes all agency from the player.

Again, I like the idea of the game and I think you do have something here, it just needs some adjustments and balancing.

Good luck with everything. Cheers

There is a failure state at 100000 credits of debt. It is definitely possible to complete the game, but you must learn the payout and success rates, which is intended. There is a fixed piracy rate which becomes a major factor after debt has been paid and you can no longer dump wealth, also you are accruing interest every time you travel, so travel definitely has down sides. The wealth states dictate base prices which fluctuate in a range for each state, you may find that one "Rich" station will have better ore prices than another, but they should always be higher than "Poor."

I created the game as an open world gambling simulator and I feel that it serves that purpose quite well, while still necessitating an understanding of the underlying mechanics and rewarding experimentation. 

Thank you for the review and I appreciate that you took the time to try it!

(+1)

I did end up addressing the difficulty by making it easier for each route to complete the debt payoff. It should now be possible to complete the debt payoff in your first run, but it still is not easy and will require planning and upgrades.

The game does not end at the debt payoff though, but from that point on the dynamic shifts significantly, promoting the use of different methods without the punishing interest rate looming