For anyone here that defends Joel and says there can't be any other way to do it other than railroading, allow me to enlighten you.
>Joel has to railroad for the narrative
Any narrative that AH is cooking up can and almost always has been able to be modular. They can swap planet names around and do 90% of the story that they've done up to this point. The only thing I can think of is the invasion of Super Earth and let's be honest they forced it anyway and the status of the galactic war did not matter. The upcoming gloom event also doesn't matter as they can have us either push into the gloom or we can just jump off any planet we have nearby. The idea that we can't have free reign of the map is small brain thinking.
>We can't be allowed to conquer the entire map too quickly
This wouldn't even happen. One, we've proven time and time again we can't coordinate on our own for shit. Speeding up liberation and splitting the fronts so each has its own cap wouldn't even make a dent, to be honest. Furthermore, if our captures were more frequent, so could the enemy's. Battle lines would change more often, sectors would become the new planets and we would see a much more dynamic war. It would be objectively more fun to engage in cat and mouse and tug of war than an endless sloggy stalemate.
>The war doesn't matter let me play where I want to play
You can and should be able to do so, but squandering one of the most unique things about this game is downright criminal. People who give a shit should be able to make a difference and we should be engaged in a game with the GM, not just doing what he says
>It's too much work to keep up with
Then hire someone that wants to do it. If Joel can't stay on top of it, hire two people on opposite time zones to always have a hand on the wheel. Sounds like a pretty comfy job honestly and I bet they could find people to do it.
The galactic war doesn't have to suck. Joel is just a garbage GM and Narrowhead don't seem to give a shit.