Hello. I bought this game nearly a year ago, about 4 months after the last update was released. Now, a year later, I've come back to this forum to check up on updates, to see if there are any, and there hasn't been. I believe current release is sitting at 0.8.*** or something.
The reason I have been waiting for updates is because IMO, this game is unplayable. Let me explain.
The ratio of cost/reward is horrificly unbalanced. I slowly but surely get drained of resources to the point where I'm stuck in a random sector somewhere, out of fuel, and unable to do anything. As you progress the AI ships and fleets get bigger and more powerful, requiring you to match or outmatch what you would normally encounter. This means more resources, fuel, etc to keep playing the game. Eventually those resources run dry. There's no way to "farm" anything in this game, as every attempt you make after the first attempt yields less resources at a heavier resource drain to do said farming.
I've been waiting for an update that alleviates this. I've had SS sitting on my desktop, staring me in the face, saying "hey, play me". But I put about 20 hours into this game the first month I picked it up, and haven't played it since. As it stands, if this game were on steam, I would give it a negative review. I feel like I threw $20 away on a game that is so punishingly hard, the mechanics make it so that you are beaten down to the point of defeat just as you are getting your feet off the ground. The push to constantly explore new sectors, that get farther and farther away, at the increased cost of fuel and resources, only to find nothing in those sectors, really makes it so that you can never beat this game. It is literally impossible to beat this game. And I don't want the hardcore super experienced players say "just keep playing it". I'm telling you, as a newbie to this game, I find it unplayable, and I have put it down months ago and haven't come back to it.
It's sad because I like the "dark souls in space" feel to this game, and I want to be challenged by it, but even dark souls has ways to alleviate the impossible feeling you get, by being good at playing. This game is all about chance, random dumb luck, and then being smashed with the sledgehammer of needing resources.
I have multiple suggestions that would make this game feel like you are progressing, you are getting somewhere, while still retaining the difficulty. One such example would be to increase carrying capacity of your ships, so that you aren't having to dump extra resources you find out in to space, allowing you to retain the stuff you find. That's just one suggestion. Another would be to reduce the cost of travel, or give us ways of farming little bits at a time without having to spend massive resources. For example, special micro-nebulae that one could farm space gas, having a refining ship in the fleet to convert said space gas into fuel, and now you have a source of fuel to play with that you can always come back to, without running the risk of loosing your crew just to sit there and suck up the space gas. This of course would take a long time to harvest, but gives the player the option of having a way to sustain the larger and larger fleets you have to assemble to remain competitive against the AI.
So currently this game is 100% negative review, it's unplayable IMO, and looks to be abandoned. It needs balance tweaking and things added to it. Please devs come back to your project and continue polishing this game up. I've been waiting and would like to see an update. Thanks