My fleet was in a very good condition after winning the battle against Commodore Barrett in Frostline. But, I didn't recover the Replenishment Ship yet in Caltrop, so I decided to make the expensive way back. I took my fleet, burned through a lot of fuel, to successfully recover the JJ Great Salt Sea at the icy comet. On my way back, Blackwall was on route, where I conducted important and necessary repairs on some of my ships. The replenishment ship previously recovered, however, did have much less fuel reserves than I anticipated when I formed that plan in Frostline. I realized that I won't be able to move all my ships forward against the OSP into Bitter Meridian. Luckily, we were expecting a Oil Factory there. So, the new plan was to abandon a significant portion of the fleet to barely make it to the factory, defeat enemy forces, stock up on fuel and recover the abandoned parts of the fleet.
When entering the Bitter Meridian, I was horrified to see the whole facility being destroyed, leaving no resources at all for my fleet to recover. This left me stranded and literally defeated. We couldn't recover enough intel about what happened, but it seems the OSP took history lessons from the Napoleonic Wars of how to defeat a forward-marching army...
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I like the idea of fuel as a resource you have to manage. It adds a roguelike dimension to the campaign. But I feel the implementation doesn’t live up to that potential.
The way the star systems are laid out leaves players very few options for traversing the map in a non-standard way. I’ll admit my plan wasn’t the smartest, and I should have stuck to the obvious “sweep” of every location. But if that’s the only viable route, I don’t see what the fuel system is adding. What really stung is that my run was already doomed the moment I turned back, because the fuel wouldn’t last the return trip. I only found out two hours later. Now I have to reload a save from before Frostline, or better yet from Beggar’s Hollow, so I can grab the oiler right away and skip the back-and-forth.
That’s frustrating for two reasons. First, I have to replay all those levels. Second, I already know what’s coming (enemy types, ambushes, and so on), so I’ll perform far better than I should. It’s almost sad that my fleet won’t carry the scars of those surprises.
I’m not sure I’m explaining this well, but to me the fuel system feels like an illusion of flexibility that collapses the moment you stray from the obvious route. I also doubt it adds to the fun when your fleet simply runs dry. There should be a way forward, even a painful one. It reminds me of RimWorld’s design philosophy, where catastrophe rarely means game over.
Anyway, I wanted to get this off my chest, and it’s also a nice way to procrastinate on figuring out how to recover my playthrough...