After experiencing the new update, I have some things to say about it.
First of all, the update was definitely something that this game needed. I got bored of Slime Rancher because there wasn't enough left for me to do. This update got a good 15 more hours out of me.
And though more stuff to do is nice, it can also be... bad. I happen to have a particularly interesting setup. I owned at least one of almost every slime type before the update. I had Honey-Hunters, Phosphor-Crystals, and Rad-Booms. I was also free-ranging phosphors in the grotto and pink slimes in the overgrowth. I was growing mint mangos for my honey-hunters, oca-ocas for my rad-booms, and cuberries for my pink slimes, phosphors, and phosphor-crystals. I also had some puddle slimes. So I was growing crops in 5 different areas, with three total types. I have to replant a total of 9 farms every couple of days. I have to shove mint mangos back into the feeder because it spits out too much, I have to collect plorts, et cetera, you get it. I had a lot to do. Then, slime science came along, and I had to expand.
So I first discovered I needed rock and tabby plorts. So, I cross-bred my free-range phosphors with tabbies and my free-range pink slimes with rocks. Then I found that I needed WAY more pink plorts, so I dedicated 2 lab plots to corrals for pink-rad slimes, and 2 plots to oca-oca farms. Everything was good for the time being. Then I needed to start extracting materials from a total of 4 places, and things got out of hand fast.
I went to the indigo quarry and set up a few drills at the exit of the grotto teleporter. Then, I placed some apiaries at the end of the moss blanket, next to the teleporter that led back to the ranch. After that, I went to Arch Island to place some pumps, because I had a feeling that it would net me some Deep Brine. Finally, I went back to the lab and placed a drill, apiary, and pump there. Of course, this is all simplified, as I did this over a long period of time, and figured this all out with lots of experimentation.
So I got the treasure cracker, got some blueprints, unlocked tier two stuff, yadda yadda, you get it. I made a teleporter right to the end of the moss blanket so that I could easily empty out the apiaries there. I visited the volcanic island, which was cool. I found the pod with the fire flowers and almost died of excitement; because those things are GORGEOUS and YOU KNOW IT.
Eventually, I got all the treasure pods listed on the wiki (though for the most part I only used it after finding more than half the pods myself), and just decided to stop. Why did I decide to stop, you ask? Well, I'll tell you.
The game is starting to feel like work. My containers have excess plorts in them, I have to constantly go back and forth feeding slimes, replanting this, moving that, feeding these guys, emptying these apiaries, now these drills, feed these slimes, now empty those pumps and NOW you can go looking for treasure pods. And on multiple occasions, I've died while searching. So I'd have to replant all my crops, then feed my slimes, then empty ALL the extractors, and THEN I can go back and try again. It takes a good 15 minutes to recover from a death. It's really aggravating.
On the topic of extra work, at one point, I had put down a roostro and a few hen hens to breed freely on my farm, and it spiraled out of control. By the time I realized "wow, I might have too many chickens. Is my game lagging? Yes, yes it is," I had 250 of the things. I have a silo dedicated to chickens now. It was THAT bad. You guys might want to put a spawn limit. I STILL have like 10 chickens under the stairs.
And on a more serious note, I'm really dreading going back in, because I'll be swamped with tons of work. Even if I fix these problems, like the excess plorts, they'll just reappear later.
I like what you guys have done with slime science, though. It's interesting and it adds a new dimension to the game. The new areas that you added are also really, really nice. I especially like the grotto extension.
Still, I think that something needs to be done about the workload. There's just too many things on my ranch to manage, especially after a death. Perhaps slime science could be of assistance? Maybe in the future, slime science could be a catalyst for unlocking an upgrade to replant crops or extend inventory spaces of plort collectors, or to automatically collect crops, even. Really, anything that helps to manage all of the stuff happening on the ranch is just great.
Also, here's a picture of JUST the elder hens and roostros on the farm. This is after I had cleaned up those blasted chickens.
I call it "old folks home." It's a masterful photo, I tell you!