Spoiler
Core Gameplay:
I think that the first job, of getting all of the core weapons reasonably balanced and differentiated without creating any huge loopholes, is largely done at this point. There are arguable issues here and there, but it's feeling pretty decent. There are things where I really would like to see more fundamental change, like how the Hephag in Vacuum was the high-end AOE Flak, not just a mildly-duplicative HE gun that used a Large Slot, but that's a big deal and I'm not sure if that stays in the scope of the project. Anyhow, I'm reasonably happy thus far; having learned all the hard-way lessons the first time, with Vacuum, there hasn't been a bunch of power-creep this time.
So, now it's time to look at the ships while continuing to screw down the places where weapon balance can still be improved.
Where to start is a bit of a puzzler, but probably I need to work Frigates upwards. They and Destroyers have gotten more relevant with the changes in their total OPs from Tech, which is great, but they're still having some fundamental problems here and there.
For example, the poor Hound is basically a two-trick pony, and neither of them involve using the Chain Gun- it can use a Heavy Mauler or a Hypervelocity Driver and be relevant as an annoying kiting ship that you cannot ignore and cannot kill easily. But the single turret is a huge liability and its System is a complete joke. I think the Hound is weaker now than it's ever been, and that sucks (imo) because it's one of the classic designs of the game. I'm thinking it needs a 360 turret so that it's missile defense isn't zero, and a System that helps it rather than feeling like a consolation prize for breathing. There are a bunch of ways to skin that cat.
That's just one example.
While I'd say that there aren't a ton of ships that I feel are totally worthless, and some have improved to the point where they are serious contenders now, there are a few where I'm going to look at them, now that I'm feeling that weapons are getting close to a reasonable balance overall.
For example, the Hammerhead still kind of sucks, compared to the Medusa and the Enforcer; it is weaker both on offense and defense, and weaker on offense than the Sunder (although, personally, I think the Sunder got a little too nerfed by Alex's changes to its Flux pool / Vent). How to make it better is probably a combination of things- perhaps it gets Burn 5 and a smallish armor buff? It doesn't need a lot to be relevant; just enough of a difference that people are genuinely torn between it and something obviously sexy.
The other major core stuff that I need to evaluate is Hull Mods that are essentially useless or detrimental to play now, like Expanded Missile Racks and the ammo buffs and the Systems that are pretty iffy now.
I feel like Fast Missile Racks is balanced pretty well, now that it's a true save-it-for-the-right-time buff, but there are others where I'm not so happy.
Campaign Gameplay:
I'd like to talk about the Independents. I'm a bit torn about what's going on with them atm, and probably should leave changes to them off the table, but it's driving me a bit crazy to see how they're implemented. Right now, Pirates transmogrify into Independents when they "change flags", rather than taking on a true false flag. There is no way for players to blow their cover or deal with them in any meaningful way without getting into huge relationship trouble with the "real" Independents. This is one of those things where it's obviously placeholder and I'm kind of torn, because it's relatively easy to address but it's going to get wrecked whenever Alex gets around to an official fix.
Moreover, there is nowhere where there is a big enough / stable-enough market for Independent goods to generate, meaning certain types of ships aren't really showing up in markets. This is also an obvious problem with Tritachyon as well, but hopefully the Tibacena change fixed that.
There are also a bunch of issues with how the markets work, that really cannot be fixed with anything but code. I'm very leery of getting into that side of things until Alex's stuff is more stable, though, and I feel like this is an iffy task when I'm just trying to get balance tuned a little better. I may just let things slide.