Great game. It reminds me of Warcraft 3, but without having enemy armies destroy my base - I was never good at the fighting but enjoyed base building so this is just in my wheel house. And it's great that you can use multiple strategies to win. I'm more into satisfying everyones needs as opposed to exploration based run. You?
I would have disagreed with your last statement/question until playing ATS. The way you discover the glades - which opens up large building areas - is more than enough exploration to fulfill that need. At first I was a little disappointed in no combat, but I found that strategy plus relaxing (but with excitement) was a very viable combination. Especially since achieving a relaxing gaming experience with excitement is so rare. And in 99% of games I turn the music off either right away or once it's repeated enough times which is usually within 10-20 hours. But I leave the music on in ATS, between it and the rain it's quite relaxing for a video game. Shit I want to play it now haha