It never seemed much of an issue to me that allies cross your path. Yes it's annoying if you have your sights on an enemy, but even so, situational awareness has to be there. It's like you said - you have to have your eyes on many things at once. The key is not to get too locked-in on any one thing but to keep a detached view of the whole battlespace around you. Maybe it just takes practice. Also: Pause button!
The point is - AI isn't perfect, they're not supposed to be perfect. Some aspects of the AI are rather annoying, yes, such as split-second phasing turning phase hunting into this metagame where you have to stick close and keep your weapons locked on their signature. It's fairly bland and one-dimensional on its own, but if you're in a proper engagement things will work out differently. Granted,
a lot of the time they separate themselves from the battlegroup and run off to play these peekaboo-games which is real tedious. How can we fix this? Make them less smart? Make them prioritize alpha strikes vs. taking damage? I think what we're seeing here is a direct result of the AI wanting its ships to survive, which is not bad at all. The resulting behaviour is just a bit too game-y and exploitative.
I don't agree with a lot of Sordid's points simply because I don't see them as much of an issue in my own games. Not everyone plays the same. But I do feel one particular point is valid, and it's a bit painful to say. The M&B analogy. A great, fun sandbox game that's unfortunately never been quite 'cooked to completion'. We're seeing a lot of things in the new version that add depth, but even so the faction relations framework still feels unfinished. On the front of new ingame content there aren't a lot of new things either. The star systems feel empty (and feel more empty on top of that now that we're all sneaky about it) and the new ships are mostly low-tier civilian craft. The question to ask here: Is the
player going to use these, or are they just more flavor and backdrop?
It is a reasonable approach to work your way through all the various mechanics as Alex has done and reserve additions such as a proper skill tree for last. But you also have to acknowledge that we're all playing this game right now, in its current state, and what I personally want to see are more lively systems and more fleshed-out combat lineups (SS+ Alastor and Claw fighters are a good example here). Variety and busy maps. The forced faction decision is also rather shoehorn-y and turns this game into something else, something more short-lived as opposed to the 'open arena' that it was before. I miss that and I feel it was important.
But I'm not done playing 0.7 yet.
Edit: And to not leave this all on a negative note. Thumbs up for the fleet logistics simplification, crew upkeep removal, marines and boarding mechanics and a big fat thumbs up for group battles. I'm just putting the spotlight on my sore points. There is a lot to like about the update. Don't feel discouraged.