Quick question if I may: does the clip reload mechanic interact with the expanded magazines hull mod, and if so, how?
The hullmod increases the maximum ammo. So, for example, if you had 100 ammo and a clip size of 20 (so, 5 clips), and you get +50% from expanded magazines, you'd have 150 ammo, a clip size of 20, and 7.5 clips. The number of clips is a stat derived from max ammo and clip size, so it doesn't actually have to evenly fit into max ammo, and isn't used for anything aside from giving you a sense for what fraction of the ammo gets reloaded per reload.
I actually used that feature - I'd have my ship set up how I like with the bare essensial mods/weapons and then used that 'hide hullmods I can't fit/afford' to work out how to spend the rest of my OP.
Would be nice to have a second checkbox? I.E. a 'Hide incompatable hullmods' and a 'hide unaffordable hullmods' box?
Ah, hmm. I don't want to mess with it for this release, but let me think about it. It does seem like the color-coding (red = unavailable) would still help you out here, with the list already being pruned of anything that's inapplicable. I suppose whether that's superior to outright hiding those mods is debatable/subjective. You generally don't have that many hullmod options available in the campaign, though.
Reload mechanics aren't really meant to be a buff from what I can tell. Indeed, in shorter battles it will probably be a nerf. All-in-all it will probably end up about even.
Yeah, they're not intended as either buff or nerf, but more for flavor, although I it *is* a buff in extra-long battles, especially in cases when a ship's peak effectiveness isn't ticking down.