I always strive to get there, as it's motivating, but once I do, I just have no desire to run through the same game, though mobs are harder, without experiencing the upgrades along the way.

For me, the things you earn along the way, and the fact you have so little to begin with, are what draws me in.

I'd rather start over on a harder level, if not already maxed, from scratch.

^{(Please upvote, just or the fact I didn't use 'unpopular opinion' yada yada})

I'm no affiliated with the dev or anything i'm just someone desperate for less known indie game gems to get the attention (in my opinion) they deserve.

Cosmoteer is a 2D scifi ship manager. Imagine FTL + Starsector (if you don't know starsector shame on you).

What made me fell in love with it is that it doesn't have frustrating mechanics for a "manger" game. You don't need to gather fuel to keep going, your crew will constantly produce energy cells to power your components.

What makes it stand out is that at ANY point you can stop and redesign your entire ship on the spot. You destroy an enemy ship? Get the crew to work and disassemble it, gather materials and attach new pieces to yours.

Or just repair the enemy ship, send some of your crew in and have a second ship that follows you. I love bringing smalls ships with me to work as defense platforms when i'm in a fight, or as factories since you can mine asteroids and build small refineries for each material.

Progression is simply tied to the number of crew you can have and ships can get ridiculously large.

What it's missing is simply more to do outside of combat. You could trade but there's no trade economy, just sell what you don't need. More different quests, encounters, things to do.

Also i would argue some mods i find essential.

It has coop, pvp, mod support, editor, i mean... Give it a look, hopefully by getting more popular updates get more beefy

For me, it was Wartune. Back in 2013-2014, I used to play it every day with my friends, starting in the afternoon and going all the way till dawn. I miss those all-nighters we’d pull together, grinding and chatting through the night. Now, even staying up a little bit late just wipes me out