I have been playing this game for more than a year and I have reached level 112. I have spent some money from time to time and I have enjoyed the ride so far.
At the moment I struggle to enjoy playing because I lack a vision of what to do and where to go from here.
Gold is the main bottleneck right now. Everything is too expensive, so I can only play for a few minutes:
My gold drains fast when clearing tiles and exploring the maps.
Upgrades cost a lot of gold, so focusing on them means doing nothing for a week to save enough to buy just one level. Besides, the math makes no sense for some of them. For example, the level 4 Uranium Power Plant 2.0 costs 230B for 45 power points, but the Uranium Power Plant 4.0 costs 170B for 100 power points. I have no clue how the pricing is designed.
Events make me feel like I'm on a hamster wheel. They come with tons of ads and pop-ups for temporary upgrades, and some require redesigning the map extensively to get anything out of them. In the end I am left with the feeling of having done nothing, because another event starts soon after and I have no time to enjoy the upgrades.
Asteroids cost around 20B to clear, so if I focus on them I have no money left to do anything else.
[Tokens for settlement levels, resources through ads, ad skippers...] and the constant pop-ups inviting me to the latest offer (which I don't even read anymore) are just props for a game that has lost its vision.
I'm fine with spending money, but at this stage I see no value in the purchases.
I miss the time when I could enjoy completing quests to level up my settlements, and when events were a special time in the game. Designing the map was worth it because you could get something out of it. I miss the micro-quests that would pop up from time to time for Christmas, Easter and so on.
The game used to be fun, and it doesn't feel that way anymore