I've had a chance to try all the starters now, so thought I would summarise my thoughts on them! Akua: I like this start, and the new tutorial that goes with it. The world is beautiful, and I like the story POIs. Overall, I think it is a really good beginner world, just as it should be (when the Raptor AI is fixed should have a little bit more of challenge, as is a little to easy otherwise!) Skillon: My favourite of the worlds. It looks nice, has interesting creatures on it (the scrappers and flying Overseer things) and feels like an alien world. The up in survival feels good, having to check on your Oxygen giving some pressure (on medium settings) that you can't ignore but doesn't feel too overwhelming. I do think, as others have suggested, have some malfunctioning / rogue scrappers that are aggressive would be a cool addition. Ningues: I used to love the snow start, felt tough with cold, drones and PVs all trying to kill you. I understand why these were moved, no problem with that, but now I just feel the world is too tame... too easy (on medium). And because it is snow, though it looks good in itself, there is just not as much of interest as the other worlds (though the oasis does look amazing). I think the trouble was, the cold once mastered (it is was really easy to get a starter HV, had the resources before I even left the starter area, and use the convoy for warmth) ceases to be anything other than a minor irritant requiring some coffee. Unlike Skillon, where there was a least that feeling of always having to manage your Oxygen. Feels like it needs more of a challenge or danger, or a few more interesting things to find. Masperon: I've already left feedback about this, but I like the idea of the challenge of deadly wildlife. I just feel it needs to be a lot more challenging. It was before my time, but I've seen Spanj and others playing earlier versions of the game where you landed and were immediately hunted, struggling to set up a base as the wildlife sought to kill you. Probably don't want it that intense now, but feel that sort of experience would help for the most difficult of the starter worlds. Again, the starter HV negates 75% of the threat as you explore the planet and can be made very quickly. Overall then, felt Akua & Skillon work really well, but Ningues and Masperon need some more deadliness IMHO. Bonus point - probably really controversial but I feel a starter HV is really too easy to get, and overcomes a lot of the challenges of the worlds (particularly Ningues and Masperon). Though in a building game you don't want to put this bit off too much, but I am left wondering if it should be a little more delayed before you can access the ability to build your starter HV.
I miss having the spiders chasing me all over at the start. For Ningues, I'd recommend you try it on Hard settings before you say it's too easy. Remember that the starts have to be balanced not just for medium, but for hard... Although you are right: once you have an HV on Ningues, the cold isn't really an issue.
