Besides the multiplayer update, what have you found fun about the game to invest all those hours?
Personally think the gameplay loop is shallow, modding helped me find more depth.
Personally think the gameplay loop is shallow, modding helped me find more depth.
But I'd say one of the best experiences I had in the game was becoming self-reliant at the start of a new save. Struggling not to die evolves into having enough resources to survive indefinitely by manual resource harvesting, which evolves into setting up crude crafting pipelines, which then evolves into advanced harvesting and manufacturing, enabling easy interstellar travel and self-sufficient freighter bases. But that can only happen once per save. And it's only really satisfying on survival or permadeath. The other modes are essentially just a no-risk sandbox.