To be honest when I first started playing it I found the building failure mechanic a big problem. In essence, without the tutorial/mission introductions you really are trying out the buildings and quickly discover they disable over time.

After about 6hrs of gameplay and the fact I've started to pick up on how to use the various resources and more importantly which building order to go for it's an element I personally like.

I think the Indicators for building health need to be modified, I'll attach a mock-up screenshot later [edit - now attached to this post], as clicking each building so see which ones are low or just about to fail is a little tedius. Some buildings should have a longer life span than others, I'd expect solar panels to fail quickest yet buildings that have no moving parts to fail very slowly, thus reducing the panic as buildings you created at a similar time failing at the same time.

I really do like the fact that there are ships flying about undertaking automatic actions, it adds a sense of 'activity' to your base.

As for performance it runs a treat set to high end spec full resolution on my PC. It may change as the building count increases but so far so good.

edit : added screenshot examples

moonbase_a4.jpg showing a left click on construction pop up summary, pressing more info shows advanced detail

moonbase_a6.jpg showing onmouseover event that indicates at a glance the building health - showed a few examples but I'd expect it only to show on the building the mouse is over (no clicking).

I REALLY like the mechanic. Among other things it puts pressure on base developers to continue to push for larger buildings which produce more since the time it takes to repair the equivalent number of smaller buildings is inhibiting. I also really like sphinxgate's interface suggestion. My only recommendation would be for the ships to have some kind of requirement for ongoing function besides "refueling." Perhaps refueling provides a momentary static drain on certain resources, such as ore (loading up on repair equipment) and energy (recharging the batteries). This kind of situational drain I think could do wonders for balance down the road as well as providing a different mechanic than what we have already.

Thanks for the feedback, im glad people are enjoying the repair mechanic, while I think its a good one too I did get frustrated with repairing stuff constantly, hopefully fixing the bugs with the system should make it much more enjoyable.

Furthermore I like the screenshots you made sphinx, it was something I was considering for android but would be too expensive, I am currently only calculating the buildings health once when needed (opening the buildings description and when repair ships search for something to repair)

with a health bar above each of them being calculated constantly, this could possibly start effecting performance on lower end computers in late game play with 100's of buildings.

I have ideas how to gain performance but will have to see how it goes, unlike rts games where buildings only take damage from enemy fire, every building loses health constantly at different rates - thus could become computationally expensive.

Another idea I have just thought of, in the spirit of realism and good planing, I thought about swapping the research mechanic around.

Instead of spending points to unlock buildings, you have to select a building to research, then it takes an amount of time (the same as it would be to collect the research points to spend) to complete the research and unlock the building.

I am personally happy with the current system, it gives you choice and a sense of accomplishment (immediate reward) and be a little easier as when you spend them, you spend it on what you need right there and then. I suggest this system as it shouldn't be difficult to switch it over and may make the game more interesting/difficult but would like your opinions (as his feature works as intended in the current build, even though you cant unlock everything yet).

How about only showing the building health when you left click the building (in essence selecting it).  A right click menu thereafter could do things like de-activate, demolish, request priority repair ship etc etc

That way you could continue to calculate at point of query, and not have the constant calculation overhead.

As for the research mechanic I think it's working ok, it's a currency of sorts, I see a building I want and I try and boost the research point generation until I have sufficient to buy the building I'm after.

I do like the UI from another post that shows the buildings that are currently locked with a nice big padlock over them, creates a very clear distinction. (found it - posted by thewebpro http://spacesimcentral.com/ssc/topic/3817-initial-like-dislikes-version-01a-alpha/?p=42307 )

It would be good to unlock some buildings automatically when you reach a certain tech level - would have to think about which ones they would be and that could be introducing a further hurdle which at this stage isn't really required - just something to think about in the long game.

I know we discussed it as a stretch goal but I'd love a UI whereby I could send 'spare' colonists on sub missions for cash, resources etc;

e.g Send (5) number of colonist/s on a sector 6 exploration mission;

     Critical Success Chance - 5% - Reward 250xore, 100xo2

     Success Chance 85% - Reward 200xOre, 50xo2

     Failure Chance 5% - No Reward

     Critical Failure Chance 5% - Loss of (2) colonist/s

Missions would last a random time limit which would then report back to the UI when complete with the success/failure.

Sorry I haven't posted any fresh screenshots, had a few late nights over the w/end 🙂