Seriously, how out of touch did you have to be to think this would appeal to both your long term players and the new ones you want to attract? To make an expansion that's so tediously repetitive with a snail's pace progression and niggling in desirable rewards during that long, long slog? And, Kepler? A destination so ugly and uninviting?
Are you actively trying to kill your game?
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Some of the greatest expansions (Dreaming City) have had massively open spaces, with broad and sweeping sky boxes to be admired and even just hang out in (Titan). This one is super cramped, and the environment is junky and unpolished, and ..what skybox? The biggest open area we got was the final boss area where you have to jump down the junk piles to the little island, and sail back to it in ball form from the ketch. Where are the open spaces? Right now we have dumb matterball puzzles just to get thru a door literally 1ft away, and all of the moveable spaces are narrow corridors lined with piles of the most random junk. Why can't the environments be pretty again?