Thank you so much for the detailed review!
I think the issue with the mechanics and the letter requirements come from:
- the fact that the cost of sending letters to various regions is randomized, but poorly randomized. Sometimes you have playthroughs where everything can go through, and others where none can go through. Instead of just randomizing, I should have the game pick values randomly from a table of 'interesting' values (e.g., 0.60 is 2 greens, one purple and anything else, but also just one red - that way you can't just tell yourself that you always need 2 stamps like you would for say 0.8).
-the letter distribution system didn't randomize well enough; I have like 10 letters with poems, 30 letters that are neutral, 10 patriotic ones, 10 anti-patriotic ones, the whole terrorist plotline, but most of them don't appear because the game's logic is faulty... This is also why you got the "content flagged as null error", my letter database wasn't finished properly.
There should have been a penalty but it seems to not have worked!
Interesting what you mention on the stamps; in my mind the stamps working on letters and not envelopes is part of the gameplay. Part of the story is the insanity of bureaucracy, where for instance you have to flag the fact that you opened confidential letters, or just stamp a terror threat. I'll keep it in mind if more people mention it!
And yes, the UX needs some rework; everything is just a bit too small to work, or too janky.
Thanks again for playing!