to start the game I softlocked myself, twice then when i finally figured out you need to start by getting an isotope or smth inside the device so you don't run out of money, i couldn't do anything for two minutes while i started to make money. When i could i was scared to buy anything because it may mean i get softlocked again in the future. There should be some way to un softlock yourslef besides just restarting. on a better note, the art for this game is apsolutely phenominal, and it is fun, just very slow expecially to start.
Thank you — this is genuinely the most useful feedback this game has had, and all of it is fixed and live now in v1.0.2 (a refresh will pick it up).
The softlock was real, and you found a proper hole. If nothing in the vault is decaying, income is exactly zero forever — and because contamination falls to zero with nothing hot, the meltdown that would normally hand you a restart stake can never fire. So the one recovery the game had could not trigger in the one state that needed it. There is now a regulator stake that pays out automatically whenever the vault is provably stuck, and it announces itself in the log. You cannot be stranded any more, so please do buy things.
The help overlay bug was worse than it looked. The controls underneath were not merely drawn over the text — they were still clickable through it, so reading the help could silently eject a cell or spend your credits on shielding. That is very plausibly how you softlocked in the first place. One fix covered both.
On the pace: you were right, and it was dead time rather than difficulty. You now open on 210 credits instead of 120, which is enough to charge both cells and still make a real second decision straight away instead of watching a number climb. The how-it-works panel also now opens with "CLICK A CELL, then buy a charge for it" as its literal first line — you should not have had to reverse-engineer that.
And thank you for the note about the art. That one landed.