Yeah, I've no idea how I figured it all out, but I remember a steep learning curve.

The big thing for me is finding a rhythm in the gameplay loop and just sitting comfy in it. While I often describe the game as my "war crime simulator" and a "frantic rush from one dumpster fire to the next", I still find my deepest chill just watching my pawns live their lives farming rice and ranching a herd of boomalope.

Turn the difficulty down, the game is normally designed to be pretty brutal which might not be what you are looking for if you want a typical city builder.

Then with various DLC packs add so much more to the game! You can sell slaves to the empire who later give you a shiny cube, worship the sacred cube, form cults dedicated to the cubes embrace, build spaceships to spread the cubes love, create an army of undead ghouls to protect the eternal cube, create an army of clone child soldiers to man the artillery that annihilate all that dare taint the cubes glory by their presence!