While I'm not sure I 100% agree with locking skins behind a 30 second ad, I do like that this rewarded ad has no affect on gameplay. A lot of the time, I did find myself watching the ad because I wanted some variety in my rocket.

An interesting bit about this is that the player finds the piece of cargo and will actually lose the cargo if they continue on without watching the ad.

This is a psychological tactic known as loss aversion. The game threatens to take away something that the player acquired through playing the game. We, as humans, don't like this. It is much more likely that we will watch the ad to avoid LOSING the cargo than if the situation was reversed. For example, if they said we could watch an ad in order to GAIN a new skin. The former is also much more immersive within the game universe.

This is a recent trend I have seen in a couple other games. Most notably Hooked inc by Lion Studios. Where the player fishes out a treasure chest full of the premium gem currency. The catch is that they can only get the gems inside if they watch an ad.

2. Rewarded video to add 30 astronauts to the rocket

This is useful if the player is very impatient with the current pace of the game. Even if the player doesn't have enough money to add astronauts to the rocket, they can still keep doing that by watching an ad.

It's worth noting that the best strategy is to buy astronauts first and THEN use this rewarded ad because those later astronauts cost more money.

3. Rewarded video to increase idle profits

This will increase the colonizer idle profits by 2x or 5x for a certain amount of time. The 2x boost can be done anytime in the galaxy view. The 5x boost is acquired similar to the cargo and is represented as a satellite orbiting a planet.

This is a pretty standard rewarded ad and will just speed up the gameplay a bit.

4. Rewarded video to save the astronauts if the rocket explodes

This is by far my favorite. I use it almost every time because it really plays on loss aversion. Not only did the rocket explode but all the astronauts shoot out in a glorious animation. The player loses the astronauts, the money spent on them, and the time for that launch. Watching the ad reduces that loss.

Honestly, I think this is a brilliant rewarded ad mechanic. The player is not getting towards the goal faster, they are just not losing as much as they could.

There is also a paid subscription service. It's something like $7 per week and gives some bonuses. This is really just going after the whales and impatient players as it's really not required to progress in the game. Most of the benefit is just progressing through the game faster.

Comparison to Space Frontier 1

This game made multiple changes from the first game.

Bigger and better metagame

The first game was limited to just 3 planets. However, it takes more time to get to those planets than a planet in Space Frontier 2. It's about as equal to discovering a new solar system.

Where Space Frontier had 3 of these planet/solar system starting points, Space Frontier 2 has somewhere in the ballpark of 100.