We have completed all the early access roadmap https://ancient-cities.com/roadmap.php so the game exits early access stage and it is fully playable.

Yeah all the let's plays I wached don't paint a good picture,
Looks like the game was too long in early access, funds are driying up so it gets put on a 1.0 release, the though tof DLC with more featues put in peoples headsbut of course if sales don't go up, which it looks like it wonpt do anytime soon since the game is very poorly optimized, not much will come off it.

On the other hand, I would class myself as "cautiously optimistic" at the moment.

Cautious still for all the obvious reasons, but optimistic because I've also been watching some recent vids for this game (something I only very rarely do, for any game) and it looks an intriguing and very promising game in many ways. The problems some players seem to have experienced don't appear to be all that insurmountable, given a bit more time to work on things.

What I did notice is that there seems to be quite a steep learning curve, which is not something that bothers me too much - I love a challenge, and there's always LadyLillyno's highly instructive vids to fall back on if needs be! - but is something that can make some players feel dumber than they believe themselves to be, and those are the players that tend to then lash out in negative reviews... For a game of this depth and complexity, it's absolutely vital that Beginner mode does indeed gently ease new players into the game, and that extra effort is given to making the tutorial / help tips etc. as clear and useful as they can be.

Just my two cents, FWIW. While I'm not quite ready for another new game just yet, of all those I'm presently following out of casual interest, this is the one I'm watching most closely.

Keep up the good work, guys. I doubt I'm the only one doing this...

It's actually pretty good. I have 10 hours in so far, and roughly 3000 in old school dwarf fortress - it is along those lines as far as the difficulty goes. The trick seems to be willingness to migrate, which I have never seen in a city builder before. It makes things very challenging, but also very interesting as well