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work... work... work... did he asked, but his words only met the cold silence of infinite void. :p

From what I undestand about the real-world research :

First is the fundamental research has no predictable goal nor time, but produces raw discoveries once in a while. People assigned to research should be creative.

After that, raw discoveries can be exploited by engineers, who work toward a known goal for a more prodictable time. It produces inventions that have a direct outcome. People assigned to invention should be equally creative and technical.

After that, inventions can be improved to be better in any way possible, again with a known goal and a very predictable time. People assigned to improvement should be technical.


The improvement is the multi-level research you describe : limitless but i would put a sort of cap on it by decreasing the gain for each subsequent level. You can still spend time improving endlessly, but for very limited gains compared to other less advanced fields. It provides both choice and consistence, as it encourages logically to even out the research through all available fields.

The invention is the one-time research you describe. For me it should be based on the knowledge they have access to on the moon. Improved access to knowledge could be gained by restoring a communication link with the rest of the human civilization.

And I would like the fundamental research to be added as a very late-game possibility. We are speaking about stranded colonists on a lonely moon, it's unlikely that they will start looking for deep answers before their basic needs are fulfilled. But I think it should be necessary for the most powerful/bizarre inventions. Fields could range from hard sciences (physics, mathematics, etc...) to psychology with ecology, as I saw plants during my first game.

Giving the premises of the game, one obvious end would be rebuilding a space ship and getting out of there.

In that line of thought, maybe the raiders value their lives more than the loot they could get, and would run away after a few bruises. I didn't get to that point yet, but in a story-oriented perspective, raiders would probably not die up to the last of them for a pile of metal. Except if you pissed them off by raiding their own supplies, of course.

My first story is a little less exciting, but it also has fire.

Starting to starve, my three poor souls finally get how to get power, but the minute the power conduit is linked to the main room, the thunder struck the power conduit, setting the solar panel and the empty room on fire. Having no clue how to deal with the fire, the situation escalated rapidly when Harvey went on mental breakdown and jumped into the flames. At that point, Leon and Alex knew they wouldn't survive long. I swiftly freed them from solitude and starvation by hitting the "Back to Game Menu" button.

Time played: 10 minutes, no bug to report, but I definitely have to learn about fire fighting before starting over.

If I had a suggestion, it would be to remove all random happenings, good or bad, until all tutorial screens have been acknowledged (at least skipped). I mean, it's producing tragically short and fun stories, but it's a little frustrating to see hell raining on the first game.