No, I am not evil for wanting to turn space whale city-builder Beyond These Stars into a Moby Dick simulator

I think I'm a pretty decent Space Whale Mayor, all told. A caring and responsible fellow traveler for Kewa, the astral cetacean on whose craggy, cloud-hung back every city in Beyond These Stars is founded. For each hexagon of whaledirt I transform into a mine or a smelter, I give back to the creature in some way – adding saplings to the forests that emit my city's bubble of breathable air, or spreading compost across the cracked stone of Kewa's neglected extremities. I have unblocked the river that runs along their spine, irrigating the badlands and rousing long-dormant seeds from the dust. OK, so my progress hasn't been tidy. I did manage to poison half the river, after getting a bit extravagant with wood-fired power plants, but I'm swiftly repairing the damage, having built three automated tile cleaners on each bank, while pausing nearby steel production to avoid adding any more slag and soot to the water. Meanwhile, my hedge gardens gleam like jewels socketed in amongst the dull bronze wires of my roads. My foresters labour zealously to push back the grey. My people are full of good cheer, despite living on an exclusive diet of tea and potatoes. They don't much like the stinking, iridescent river, but they do like all the playgrounds and fountains I've set up near the major workplaces. Read more

Read it at Rock Paper Shotgun ↗

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