I think you should not be to hard on yourself, it might be the fact that they expect you to RP the way they want, I say keep doing what your doing, Your doing fine in my books :)
Well I have been working on a alien race for some time, tweaking and stuff but not near completion, but might be easier to run on a smaller scale might help. however how long have others been on this world and build stuff? but many just starting to colonize?