I give up

I will once again state that we are in early beta testing where most of our focus currently is on fleshing out the features rather than specifically on gameplay. Experience is a major gameplay feature. As we continue to flesh out the game, this will evolve greatly. XP really shouldn't be much of a concern at the moment since there are going to be resets.

this is feedback, I think - telling you now so you don't take another seemingly wrong turn IMO - game should be a challenge and fun, not a plain pita to do

Please remember that this is still private beta. The focus is on getting the bugs out and fleshing out the features. The major work on refining gameplay will ramp up as we get closer to public launch (it is always a work in progress though).

agreed but not every "10 levels" - last night I spent 2 hours to not even move the XP circle 1/4 not stopping at all - this is ridiculous in my estimation - I personally will not spend 20 hours in here in a row to ONLY move 1/2 a circle - this needs to be corrected pretty fast in my opinion

I agree with VirtualJohn's suggestion on how to modify the xp to keep it interesting both difficulty as achievability wise.

I don't want to spend a day getting only halfway there either

Greater xp should be available as you level, either old tasks get more complex and therefore worth more or completely new ones become available, preferably both to add complexity and variety. So for example with the slots, just increase the total chips to be won, for the exploring task, once the city has grown anyway, you could add an extra block to the distance required every 10 levels or so (or even so many extra steps per level) and increase the xp reward for the task relative to that with diminishing increases.