I was one of the people that was lucky enough to test SA:AB. And heard a lot of peoples concerns here, I dont want to give much away but a lot can be cleared:
1. New units being rubbish - Sort of, there were more viable options in SAM, but the ranged unit is easily sufficient if you auto battle lots, and it isnt co-incidence that its the first you unlock, rest are situational, this seems to be intended, Champions indeed can be useful too. So although not ideal, its better than the perception you get here.
2. Lack of access to Mars goods - Yes, its more difficult to get them, but look at the tech tree, once you unlock first unit, which is only real good one, rest of the tree is mediocre. So you can happily sit in SAAB for a year with only 4 technologies unlocked, so again, dont panic on this one.
3. Recurring quests have been destroyed - Yes this is a huge change. But actually, if you look at them, all of them, they have been rather clever here, they arent destroyed at all, actually the opposite, i will be levelling my CF more for SAAB rather than abandoning it. The only annoying bit is that there are 13 so takes longer and text is longer in some quests so the skip button moves location (thats the only bit I wish they will change).
As far as bugs go, I spotted a few, didnt have chance to report as everyone I found was already reported and fixed quickly after, so reasonably stable.
Point is really, this era isnt much better or worse than SAM, so dont worry about hitting it, but you do need to reset your thinking to make it work. I'm not going to spill all the beans, for the same reason Inno dont, half the fun is finding out yourself. But if you have a hestitation about moving up, honestly don't worry.
