I gave it a good go and came away with some interesting thoughts.

• The early game stuff from EA is still here. Lima is floor 1, which is effectively the tutorial.
• Floor 2 is Victor, which in the EA was the main base location. That appears to still be the case, given that this floor has Iron, Copper, and Limestone. I’ve got a multi-story factory once again.
• The balance of Iron/Copper remains a challenge. You’ll seemingly never have enough Iron until quite a bit into the game.
• Biobricks and routing to the 3 mining areas remains a priority.
• The tweaks to the Planter/Thresher production cycle are less intuitive. Instead of collecting seeds, you collect material that is Threshed into seeds. The lack of a UI that explains this (Thresher UI doesn’t populate until you put stuff in it) is going to be a hurdle for some.
• Research appears to have been balanced, including very early access to a fuel-free jetpack.
• Making foundations takes way too many materials, in particular limestone. By a factor of 10. This means you need to explore for chests to find materials.
• It becomes clear very quickly that you do not want to craft anything by hand if you can avoid it, Mk1 craft double the rate, Mk2 quad. The game is balanced around the latter.
• Floor 3 has some research unlocks for Planters/Threshers. It takes ~20 mining bits to unlock. Better done sooner than later.
• Floor 4 is the Hydro floor, which was a mid-game unlock in EA. Water Wheels. Should be a race to get here honestly, as they make a world of difference.

So far, it’s been rather similar to the EA experience, with the exception of automating floor construction, which is much more difficult. The main difference so far is the need to craft Mining Bits, which are, well, an interesting mechanic.

In the simplest of terms, Mining Bits are a time-gating mechanic. The elevator has 2 inputs for mining bits, at 4/minute. As you dig further, the bits become less effective. Automating construction of these is key, as they are slow to build and slow to dig.

So far I consider the experience improved.