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I've been mostly on a Minecraft binge, lately, with some EVE Online on the side, so I haven't been playing Cardalaxy much, recently.
As of the time of this writing, the current version of Cardalaxy is Alpha 0.5.2.
In the 2 rounds of Cardalaxy I've played recently, it feels like the Defense and Wellness tracks are in healthy places. Neither system feels like "YOU ABSOLUTELY MUST DEAL WITH THIS TO THE EXCLUSION OF ALL ELSE!" In addition, it's a nice touch to be able to get a small number of Production points from destroying Local Threats; the Tier 2 buildings "Launch Facility" (2 Production 1 Exploration) and "Modular Farm" (3 Production 2 Wellness) aren't absolute must-haves. (It used to be that if I didn't see "Launch Facility" or "Modular Farm" early in the Technology Tree, then I would quit the game and start over.)
I would need to put a few more hours into playing to be sure, but overall, I think the game is in a good place, metaphorically speaking.
As of the time of this writing, the current version of Cardalaxy is Alpha 0.6.2.
Having played the current version about a dozen times, now, I've noticed that the difficulty in the game is somewhat frontloaded into the early game. By Turn 3, the combat system starts putting pressure on the player to address the combat system. This isn't necessarily a bad thing in and of itself, but it can be difficult to manage if the "Tactical Systems" technology (+2 Combat if already producing Combat this turn) is 3 or 4 steps deep into the randomly-generated Technology Tree or is missing from the tree completely.
Defeating Combat threats gives bonus points in all areas except Combat; this is a nice touch, but comes with a side-effect: some of these points randomly go into Wellness. Once the first Wellness bonus is triggered, the Unwellness drain activates and doesn't ever stop. (This wasn't the case in the previous version of Cardalaxy, so I'm wondering if this is a bug; I've posted on the Bug Report thread about this.) This now means that the player is getting pressured on two fronts: Combat and Wellness, and the player might not yet have access to the Tier 2 buildings needed to easily address this.
The first Crisis happens around Turn 10 or so, which then means that the player is under pressure from three fronts simultaneously. This is a little tricky to juggle without the appropriate Tier 2 buildings.
If the player gets past this phase, then the game gets easier.
The only suggestion I have at the moment to take some of the pressure off the early game is to disable the Unwellness drain if all Wellness bonuses are deactivated.
Thanks for the feedback! We had some similar thoughts and are working on some major changes to the defense system right now. Following that we also have several changes planned for the crisis system. Hopefully both of these will help reduce the pressure early on but increase the pressure later in the game.
Alpha 0.7 is now live.
I've played two games, so far, one that I gave up on and one that I won.
Overall, I strongly dislike the new combat system. It makes combat threats in the early game SO MUCH HARDER to deal with that I don't like playing anymore. Please consider a rollback to Alpha 0.6.2.
Combat points are really hard to accumulate in the first 20 turns, especially when the tech "Tactical Systems" is NOT an early technology (either buried too deep into the tech tree or absent completely). Constructing buildings in the early game was already hard enough, but if a Pirate shows up early it's now even harder because I need 5 Combat points to get back any Production points that the Pirate (or Pirates if a second one showed up) stole.
Alpha 0.7.1 is now live.
Early game defense threats are easier to deal with in this version than Alpha 0.7. That being said, I still don't like this combat system as it makes it almost impossible to use Combat points against Crises; only 2 to 5 Combat points can be used against a Crisis per turn depending on selected weapon upgrades and whether or not the Subversion Crisis is in effect. In later stages of the game, Combat points get converted into extra Laser Charges before I have a chance to divert them into Crisis resolution.
Come to think of it, similar restrictions exist with trying to use Science and Exploration points against Crises, as well, but Combat has become even more restrictive in this regard than Science and Exploration. I do not believe that this restriction should exist for any of these systems. When planets are played, would it be possible to hold the harvested points until the player has a chance to send some of those points directly to Crises?
Yeah, looking at it Defense is especially bad about that now. With exploration and science the limit at least increases as you get further into the game and it takes more points to convert. Defense does the opposite, starting low and potentially getting lower with certain upgrades. I'm going to change it to allow automatically breaking a charge back into points so they can be taken for the crisis system. I'd rather not add in a stage between playing planets and sending the points to their systems if I can help it as that would slow down the gameplay loop.
For the other systems I'll see if I can come up with something for them. Otherwise maybe I can do something with the crisis system to allow a kind of toggle-able magnet effect to send points there first or something.
I was just looking for the comments section, but I'm 100% picking up what you're putting down with this game and I want more!! This puts me in a natural decision making process, where I have a min-max goal, but also have to consider what I'm capable of each turn maybe I can earn more of a less desired stat, etc etc.. Yes I want to improve my planets a certain way and then play them a certain order but I'm also at the mercy of what's drawn. AND the randomized "tier 2 resources" on planets, the more powerful mods you unlock later, the asteroids and moons, the tech tree - all of this variety each playthrough gently pushes the player towards a certain victory path. It's really not hard to understand anything in the game, you just have to play the game to see it happen. I was never confused as to *why* something happened the way it did, I mean at least not after seeing it/testing it 2-3 times. The only unclear language I remember hesitating on was the effects of like, "+6 but -1 each turn", and it wasn't clear that meant each time *played* one way or the other. I also didn't pickup the one "smart person" icon upgrade cause it read +2 score to points *not* earned or some such. I'm ranting but the language makes sense after I see it in action. Could use some more precision to understand it "blind".
This is beautiful. It recreates the simple intuitive start of 4x games, that grows into something so layered I get fatigued just trying to mentally conceptualize how it all interconnects. But my intuitions knows something is right. And my 2nd time playing I managed to achieve the science and defense victory conditions on the same turn, despite having that crisis that randomizes science goals twice lol. Wishlisted and awaiting full release!!!