The game gets only better with time. They even fixed the weakest (imo) part of the writing - the Pigmote Island questline. Redone it from scratch, adding a bunch of new content to it as well.
That, and in order to do anything, you have to grind like Korean.
You don't have to grind at all. I never do.
Most stat checks require ludicrous levels in the 150-200 range, which is quite steep considering that a typical player might start with 50-odd at best. That means you're looking at grinding hundreds of levels before you can tackle the story. You really have to heavily metagame this.
No. Some challenges are supposed to be out of your reach. Your first captain is a pioneer who can't do anything late-game related. His primary goal is to give birth to a successful lineage of zee captains. His heirs will be better at everything, their stats will be waaaay higher than his own. IF you do the stuff right, of course.
Slower consumption of food and fuel, you run out way too fuckin fast
There are methods to increase fuel efficiency. Special engines, mods, and officers. Also, stick to light-weight ships like Corvette for the early-mid stages of the game, and use your lamp properly. It increases fuel consumption radically.
If you don't have a lot of crew on board, try sailing at first speed instead of second. Usually it is more expensive due to food consumption. But if you don't have a lot of mouths to feed, 1st speed is good.
Significantly improve the combat, offer more options early on, every fight turns into the same 'circle around the enemy and shoot them'
- Sometimes it's possible to kill an enemy without revealing yourself - just keep a max distance during initial fire; then sail backwards at full speed.
- Fat enemies like Lifebergs can't move through tight spaces (like salt icebergs) - you can pew-pew them with starting cannon from there, if you have the time.
- Blue Scintilac allows you to insta-reload all weapons, and you can aquire it pretty early in the game. Using it properly, you can instantly kill half of the ships and sea monster, no "circling" involved.
- "Circle around" won't get you anywhere against sea monsters. Against ANY of them.
- Also mostly useless against high-speed ships like Corvettes, unless your speed is even faster.
The game is not about combat. It isn't supposed to be rewarding in any way. I find it useful to reduce terror (every kill reduces it a bit), but overall prefer not to waste my time chasing random ships and creatures.
Improve the explanation of the heir system
What is there to explain? I am genuinely confused.