I really like the concept of this game, combines my love of exploration games with my love of hardcore/dark games. I did have a couple issues/suggestions:
There really needs to be a way to speed up the game – via some sort of ingame adjustable multiplier. I tried the speed mod but it isn’t feasible on combat, since it messes with the turn radius and makes things go a little too fast. The early parts of the game are so tedious when you die and need to redo the same things.[/li][li]This is minor and probably intentional: but I hate how I can’t get experience for visiting places I haven’t been (with a new captain) if I keep my chart.
Other than that, the game is awesome. It just takes too long to get stuff done when you don’t have a ton of time to play!
It’s very much intentional that keeping a chart means not getting fragments for exploration. Besides the logic of previously-discovered landmarks being already known, passing on a chart means passing on an increased Pages stat, which lowers the need for fragments and is intentionally difficult to raise normally.
Personally, I found the pacing of the game to be just right, honestly. I usually pick up a faster engine (usually the Ilyrian, since it’s cheap, I think) as one of my earliest buys, and it strikes the right balance between being just slow enough to be tense and atmospheric, and keeping itself interesting. Admittedly, having to repeat things a lot is a bit of a problem, but (hopefully) you can get past the initial opening stages to where the game really opens out.
And Optimatum has said everything I was going to say about the Chart.
The early game is less punishing once you gain a scion and some echoes. Then you start each game wealthy and aren’t struggling to afford fuel and supplies.