I wanted to give some overall feedback on how I am finding the game as of 1.3. I've just finished a single player run through of the vanilla campaign, and my overall view is that I enjoyed the story, and the game is overall better balanced. There are some buts in there though. To run through the different bits: 1. Starting planet / system (Temperate start): This now feels much more balanced and appropriate in terms of progression and loot, compared to when I started playing about a year and a half ago. You can get together the resources to build an early game warp CV, but without going further afield would struggle to get anything more (more optimal players I'm sure could push this further). The starter 'Abandoned' POIs are a welcome addition and a good balance (With one exception I'll mention below). The zirax cluster is fun to take on - though I do wonder, for a new player, whether it would be worth having at least one lightly defended Zirax POI that could be taken more easily on foot (like the old Spaceport). Generally the POIs are well done and fun. 2. Story. Some may disagree, but I really like the story - you seem to be doing something different with the Legacy than I first thought, and there is enough mystery that I want to find out more which is good. The missions have certainly been improved, with less walls of text (the Titan could still do with some cutting down IMHO though). The new missions, I think, show you are learning and are generally well designed. I enjoyed them more, but especially the infiltration of the pirate base (The base itself is amazing and one of my favourite POIs). It gave a different challenge having to be careful what you shot! There was one frustrating bit, but that is part of a more general problem (see below). 3. Frustrations / problems: There are a couple of things that I didn't like, or got frustrated with. I hate to say it, but the new Ilmarinen is one of them. Not that it is a bad POI overall (though there were some bits I outright didn't like), and is a classic Vermillion death trap, but it is now completely out of place in the story order in terms of difficulty. It is massively harder, more complex & more deadly than anything else in the story. This is particularly noticeable now the harder 'abandoned' POIs have been moved from the starter (which also means you are much less likely to have epic weapons to attack it with). IMO it is more appropriate for later game play, and was so fed up by the end I made use of god mode to catch up with where I was, and circumvent some of the puzzles (particularly the jumps of death over the Laser turret). I wonder if this version can be moved out of the starter as a separate dungeon, and an Ilmarinen more in line with the other starter 'abandoned' POIs introduced. My other frustration is the increasing tendency in POIs to have endlessly spawning enemies with invisible spawners, and enemies that just appear on top of you - especially if there is no attempt to even explain in game how this happens (the scorpions spawning on grills for example at least gives you warning, and you can thing of them as popping out of a vent). The Ilmarinen was awful for this in some bits, and just isn't fun. Five horrors spawning on you, with no warning or way to avoid I did not enjoy. This was also the only problem I had with the pirate base - especially one (really cool) room near the end. I had cleared out the enemies when I heard a gun and died. Why? Because an enemy had respawned out of thin air just behind me - no way to mitigate or avoid that. Got caught in a frustrating death loop for a few minutes. On top of the practical frustration, it also makes it harder to suspend disbelief when enemies just appear without even a hadnwavium explanation. Hope this feedback is helpful - overall there is a lot of good stuff, and I am enjoying the story and game, but for my tastes still some balancing to do.
