Thanks for the review.
Yes I guess starting with a bunch of objectives that you can fail can be demotivating.
I will add the ability to see your deck and that will show that the players starting deck has cards specific to water generation, if you dilute your deck with cards from other sources early it will probably be possible to lose the whole game (too) early.
I have a guided tutorial being developed which will help in some aspects, but I think also from this feedback I will ensure the first hand you can draw will always have at least one non research card and one research card.