I feel like it’s a bad idea. CIU is a game where you must fly to planets (not counting challenges) to kill chickens. And releasing it without planetary levels? Right now planets have nearly nothing to do with gameplay. They are only serving as a point where you can choose missions which you could choose everywhere. The only thing that sometimes changes are visuals (like for example frozen planets). Releasing CIU without planetary missions will feel incomplete. It could maybe (just maybe) work like a big expansion update after release, but first impression is the most important.
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Yeah, I’ve got a feeling that we should go over them type by type during Early Access because we need to experiment with them separately. I’d go with Surface missions first, then descend deeper.
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To elaborate what qbus meant, he thinks (and so do I) that releasing the game without planetary missions will affect first impressions of the very first post-EA new players. Giving them this content would boost ratings quite a lot, and I’m not saying this from a materialistic point of view - it’s more about how entertaining the game ends up being. To make it clear, currently the game is pretty enjoyable - although I’d love to see some sweet weapon reworks - but planetary missions would give it a whole new dimension.
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To be honest, I am pretty convinced that not adding the planetary missions during the Early Access might actually be a good thing. As IA said, adding them would require a lot of effort and resources, that right now are very needed for other aspects of the game. Those missions would likely be really fun, of course, but they aren’t mandatory for the game to succeed, unlike other things that need work right now. For now, it’s better to focus on CIU’s gameplay, player progression, endgame content and monetization. “Shiny” planetary missions really can wait. (That said, I am convinced that we can come up with something else, that would expand CIU in a similar way, but without needing to spend so many resources.)
Besides that, Planetary Missions have a huge potential when it comes to supporting the game post-launch. Releasing missions for each planet type, with big post-launch updates (each big update, one type of planet?) might actually have a better effect, than releasing CIU already with them. Giant “COMING SOON” message is almost unmatched when it comes to keeping player’s attention. It creates the feeling that game is growing, is supported and says that “something very cool is coming, so don’t quit now”.
So yeah, IMO @InterAction_studios has a point here.
Edit: Making one type of planetary missions in Early Access and then adding other post-launch, seems like a reasonable option aswell.
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I don’t have a strong opinion on this either way, but I think leaving EA without planetary missions is a much less crucial and impacting decision than leaving EA without multiplayer, so wanted to bring that up.
I do definitely disagree with this, I’m afraid. Developing content with the express intent of shelving it later is both an inefficient use of developer time and a sign of poor game design.
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Frozen Wasteland
I cannot begin to describe the bruh-ness of this, where a nine day old topic ends up in my notifications because one nitpicky person wanted to point out something to feel good about their OCD. Yes, I know that Wasteland exist, there’s simply no point in editing a dead topic.
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Welcome to my world. Have a seat.
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I didn’t notice that the las reply was 9 days ago.
Sorry.
This one, possibly… 
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