And some easy-to-implement suggestions/fixes to relieve manual nextcolony players.
Nextcolony
is getting harder to play. Not because of competition, but because the account is growing, and playing by best standards - and without bots - is getting so time-consuming that it's increasingly impossible to follow the optimal plan - even if you have one.
With my two accounts I now manage 14 planets - all without using bots, and without using a single chest. Ideally, all my planets should run ship production 24/7 to stay competitive at the battlefront - which is important because otherwise the big botters will see you as easy prey. I also want to fill my 62 mission slots with transports, raids and especially new explorations. After all, stagnancy is decline.
Long story short: I use all the little tricks I learned (multi-tabbing etc.), but anyway, am at the point where I either have to go semi-automatic or inactive. Both options are not fitting the style I usually play such games. Both are equally frustrating for me (especially now that I really like the game).
Quick solutions
I see no big final solution to that problem. But I see some possibilities to drastically increase playability, that should also be very easy to implement: - allow us to open a new tab when clicking the "explore" button in the galaxy view. This way, we would not have to load the (slow) map fresh for every explorer we send. - allow us to start the production of different buildings and ships at once, without waiting for the blockchain confirmation of the first one. If the custom_jsons conflict (e.g. because of insufficient ressources), the one sent first counts. This is already the case when I open 4 tabs and click on 4 different shiptypes anyway, and it is not a problem. - I like the "last target" list in the attack screen. But please, make it the last 10-20 targets regardless on when they occured. Right now, the list is too short and too fastly deleted.
With this fixes, the game should be playable for up to ~20 planets with still having real life. At a certain number of planets, nothing will help (apart from waiting lines, which are more effort to implement I guess).
Thanks for the attention, and as usual, I allow myself tagging @oliverschmid, @jarunik and @rondras too.