I finally got my first victory after getting stuck in the original Mechadronoids with the target cost rising to the thousands and no hope to ever buy that sweet sweet green star.
Took me a few tries to figure out a good strategy, it feels like there's two distinct phases, one where you amass as many stars as you can and one where you struggle against the AI in a back-and-forth buying out stars.
One thing I'd note is that I'm still not sure how connecting stars in a different way affects their output, maybe the tutorial could give a hint for that (unless figuring it out is part of the game). Also, the tutorial screen is missing that space advances turns, it's only on the itch pages's description.
Gameplay-wise, my only problem would be that once you or the AI are in a losing situation, in the back-and-forth struggle phase I mentioned before, it's pretty much impossible to come back and the game just "plays out". Everything felt clear to control, even in the 3D space of stars everywhere (the lists on the side and the grid in the background were a huge help, those were a good idea). I felt like the game really improved from the original, very cool where you're going with this.