Loved the game. I would like to make the travel requirements to the asteroid belt adjustable. I mean, when I noticed the travel button, I was over 7000 tons in mass, making the 20 days travel virtually impossible.
How about making the travel time dynamic. In real world, you accelerate for up to half the distance, then turn the ship 180 degrees and decelerate for the same period to a stop.
For that, you use the quadratic equation:
X = accel*(time**2)/2
where X is half the distance from Earth to the asteroid belt
extracting time (replacing X for D/2):
time = sqrt(D / accel)
where D is distance to asteroid belt.
The accel will be in function of the amount of ionic engines by the thrust they give:
accel = amountThrusters * thrustPerEngine
then your requirement for the travel is the amount of energy and mass per second for the thrust.
EnergyRequiredPerSecond = amountThrusters * energyPerEnginePerSecond
MassRequiredPerSecond = amountThrusters * massPerEnginePerSecond
Then, we won't require to have ALL the energy and mass at the beginning of the travel. If I have to travel for 10 years in-game, so be it.
You can suggest the total amount required for the travel, however. Hope this helps.
On another note, I can't progress if i don't travel to the belt (stopped playing here). How about using the data center to do some research, like improving the efficiency of the components, or providing better tech (like nuclear and antimatter). They could provide with bits per second, as a currency. Make the cost non-linear. Additionally, since we can now improve the components, add a way to recycle them.
Oh, and add a way to create a building queue or something similar (allowing, for example, to build 1000 battery stacks). Clicking in the thousands is hella exhausting. Since humans assemble the components, make the time to build dependant on their numbers (within reason, maybe add a cap). A 3 man station would build slower than a crew of 50. And it would be reasonable for a large station to build in batches (using the queue, for example).