I bet Duff still uses a nightlight

So it turns out they answered it in their first Q&A. The water will go away while offline and they said they will not change it, however they are willing to make it less punishing.

I've heard the same thing about the water dropping even while not playing. I'm not sure if it's true because everyone I've asked about it also just referenced reviews saying that it drops while offline. So while I'm not certain, some reviews have said that your water does drop even while offline. I intend to try the game again with a full team soon now that we've figured out how we can get around the not being able to join each other bug so maybe I can confirm it then.

Useful review, thanks. I wanted to try it out but the performance issues are truly holding me back. I read a review about the water reserve dropping while you're not even playing, is that true? If it's true, that's a deal breaker for me, even if it ran rock-soldi at 120fps in 2k res ...

You can join your friends but apparently it only works if you invite them while they have the game closed and then they're able to join. Strange bug but at least there's a work around.

but....they said we could join our friends when the game released, how dare they lie to us

I agree with you on all these points. I just want you to understand that my expectation was that it would be playable. I can't run the game with a pretty decent setup on anything but low to maybe medium and I can't join friends. These aren't just ignorable bugs they completely gatekeep me enjoying this game with friends. I just don't think a negative review is really that bad. It's the only way to get information to the developers because god knows whinning in the discord won't do anyone any good. This is the best way to express the state of the game to those who can make the fixes.

Its okay that you refund a game that doesnt work the way you want on pc. But still I think there is a big misunderstanding of early access in its concept, probably because most ea games nowadays are still published by studios behind the developers. So I think the problem is your expectation level of a game completely self published going into early acess launch. See Early Access like Crowdfunding but with the possibility of actually playing the game. They charge the 30 dollars not for you to have a bad experience but for you to support the developers vision and development time. An early acces launch isnt the same as a full release launch.

Dude the game being early access does not excuse them charging $30 for a game they should have tested on average computers before releasing. They need to make sure the game is playable to play test in the first place. It's not much to ask to just have a semi-optimized game on launch. If someone with a 4080 can't run this game then no one with an average build can even hope to. This isn't about greed or else I wouldn't have bought the game and I would have refunded it.

Another person dont understanding early access at all. Guys like you are so spoiled by early access funded and supported by big publishers that you dont even understand what this system is for. Guys like you only want games earlier for a cheaper price thats it. Does the game have performance issues? Yes. Is it unoptimized ? Yes? But Early Access IS basically playtesting while supporting the developers with your money. This is the fundament of the concept.