Recent reviews by Deks

Brilliantly addictive game with solid mechanics, does need some polish and QoL improvements especially around production and being able to set more detailed production amounts (e.g setting limits on what is produced so you don't end up flooding ships full of factory items)

On the whole a very good experience and the survival mode is quite excellent once you get a fleet going and the procedural generation starts hitting you with some bigger ship opponents, the battles are intense and can be very challenging depending on what composition it throws at you.

so having played more and seen the dev roadmap I have added the following:

State of the game - having seen the roadmap at update 23....

I have seen some comments suggesting that the roadmap is unambitious and I have to agree based on what I have seen so far, I think this is also a potential drawback of not doing an early access process that draws in ideas from the community.
I think also if you compare The Last Starship and hold it up to the depth of mechanics that was present in prison architect even at the beginning but certainly at 1.0 release then this game is extremely shallow in terms of its features and polish, this game feels very unfinished (a tremendous amount of potential but it feels like an early build
Features I would love to see implemented (or even thought of):
Crew means something: currently the crew aspect of this game is devoid of any personality (the only thing that makes your crew different is their colour), the idea that animating them is somehow an advanced feature is a bit nuts, they should be nameable, have skills or ranks that determine ability on the ship (gunners have better accuracy, range, damage etc) engineers that fix things quicker increase efficiency
The factory element of the game is extremely basic, there are no toggles for powering on or off equipment and you cannot set production limits, you cannot set filters for what is and is not salvaged form space, its actually very basic in it logic. Its complete mess when you start getting multiple ships in farming salvage or mining and very little thought has been given to fleet logistics, you cannot even transfer liquid from ship to ship via pipes you have to distill it in to cannisters and transfer it 1000 units at a time, what on earth is that!
Combat is pot luck and completely un-tactical, if you are in a good position and you happen to have a better starting angle then you can win, crew have no input into the fight and make no difference, Armor may or may not be useful but there are no stats, there are no shields, it’s really odd, there are 3 types of weapons but they are really, really basic and fleets fights are not tactical they are just a mess. There is no subsystem targeting and combat seems random and not in any way meaningful.
Speaking of fleets you can’t even sell ships at the moment you have to destroy them yourself, even if at a shipyard, again this underlines the early access nature of this game and the lack of any of the above being even mentioned in the roadmap suggests that devs think this game is a finished product, which is very far dorm the truth.
Knowing the devs from previous projects namely PA, I can honestly say I am shocked at the state of this game currently, unless I am completely misreading what they intend to do with it over the next 24-48 months, a huge amount of development is needed to allow this game to live up to its potential, Cosmoteer is 10x more polished and feature complete than this alpha just now.

fair play to the developer it is a faithful and authentic recreation of the voyager series, I zoomed through 15 hours at "survival" level to get a feel for how to play it, just started a "year of hell" difficulty, cannot stop playing it, goodbye life, hello Krenim bald fella

great demo and a lot of potential to this one, looking forward to seeing what they do with the full release

ADDICTED

brilliant update to the excellent DK1, this game is slick and tactical and I already care too much about Jack ffs,

Star wars Mods, that is all!

Very Promising and deep RTS experience, have sunk a few hours in now and can tell you this is a pretty well thought out go at an RTS with a lo of lessons learned from the past and some refreshing ideas about how not to have some annoying ♥♥♥♥ build an impregnable fortress and artillerise every poor sod on the map without prejudice!

i love the unit design and naval feel of the uints, and the battlegroups mechanic is pretty sweet and takes alot of the micromanagement of individual armies out of the mix, and trust me you will need it, the AI is quite scary even at relatively low levels and there is a real sting in the tail if you let your guard or attention slip for a minute and focus on one area of the map for too long before realising your other areas are abou to get fooked!

to summarise i am very happy with what i am seeing and the 0.7 update has added some very nice features, there is a lot of potential for some very fun MP times ahead with this game!

Thanks for Reading, Desk out

this feels like the ultimate iteration of every grand stratagy and empire building game that has ever been, the helpful AI automates what you do not want to manage and its really not a chore to play this game.

If i had to sum it up in one sentence: "do as much or as little as you want and delegate the rest"

This is how you make a war game, the battles are intense and once you have go the hang of the arcade battles, jump into realistic battles where death means death, no respawns.

for those of you with Anal OCD, there is even a simulator battle mode which tweaks up the realism even further.

Favourite thing i have seen in this game is diving from 15K Ft towards a fighter to destroy them but going too fast and my wings ripping off due to Gforce (derp)

I highly recommend this game and there is a full tanks game as well (not played that yet though)

Tripe....feed to your dog and move on

I was expecting a cheaper but up to date version of Ravenshield, I got my palm in my face repeatedly....why would someone do that to an innocent(ish) human being, no one would not want an updated Ravenshield and would get all excited by the prospect, its like putting your d**k in a guillotine but with more of a sting!

btw when is the next Ravenshield happening?