been awhile since i've played, in this new patch im still not a fan of the skill system existing despite improvements. in a game like this it truly just makes the entire experience worse. Hey guy, pick between guns that shoot straight, ships that dont lose readyness mid fight and ability to do fun industry stuff! whats that, you're bored already and don't want to have to mod the game because it messes up the balance? Nah, just remember your ships, weapons, hull, literally everything functons completely differently in arbitrary ways because you decided to spend a skillpoint in combat instead of somewhere else.
In 0.72 I could get pretty much all skills I wanted. Now a specialization is required.
1st branching point is whether you take Industry. It offers very little in terms of end-game fleet performance, but gives you tons of money early and dramatically increases progression speed.
2nd is whether you take Leadership. Not taking it pretty much means going for Solo or small fleet strategy, since you'll have only 4 officers. I don't think Solo is viable in 0.8 though. Single Onslaught doesn't feel anywhere as powerful as it was in 0.72. And AI has become much more competent at avoiding it.
3rd optional branching point is Carrier - Direct combat (if you already chose Leadership). You have to choose early and stick to one. If you chose Carrier, ignoring Technology is an option (otherwise flux and range skills are too important, not having +10% OP always hurts though).
Then you have a batch of lesser decisions of what to cut. Unless you go for Solo-centric play, you can't get all relevant combat skills.
I ignored Industry and went for mix of other 3 trees, with focus on direct combat and moderate fleet size (8 officers, 1st levels in both Coordinated Maneuvers and Electronic Warfare).
Aside from easy money in early-game, Industry is useful if you want rely on damaged ships as your fleet backbone. If you go without commission, you cannot buy very much and recovering ships is the easiest way to get rare ships. Also, damaged ships cost less to deploy, sometimes significantly less. It also has that nice half malfunction cutoff, but I am not sure that is very useful for those who deploy big fleets (although it is useful for Safety Override ships or anything with damaged/degraded subsystems.) If you rely on damaged ships, then that perk that halves all penalties from damaged mods is very nice.
I see Leadership primarily as the officer and carrier tree. I do not know if I can be bothered leveling officers since I need to save scum more if I do not want carrier skills (or want to focus on them) on the officer. That leaves carriers (and campaign convenience features). I doubt the player can afford both brawling and carriers - there are not enough skill points. So far, it is much harder to solo. Recently, I put points into speed and shot range (but still no ITU), had a Wolf solo SIM Hammerhead. Before 0.8, it was an easy wipe. Now, it is much harder. For destroyers, I have more success with a skilled Hammerhead armed with long ranged weapons (Mauler, HVD, Tac Laser) against bigger ships or skilled Drover with fighters against small ships. Enforcer is too slow and shield is bad, and Medusa lacks shot range and is not fast enough to dominate more elite small ships. Remnant frigates are a pain to kill with Medusa (although it may be much better with Converted Hangar, but I have not obtained that yet). Drover with Talon and Claw wings wipe them.
Technology is great for everyone. Gunnery Implants is good for all except maybe pure missile boats (like Gryphon). Even carriers may want extra shot range to snipe at enemies with needlers or HVD so that the fighters finish off the now shield-less target. Also, Loadout Design is very nice, especially for carriers. Carriers will need the extra OP if it wants to use fighters aside from Talons (or Recovery Shuttles to mitigate crew loss). If a normal ship wants to have a wing of fighters, and that is a very good idea with current game balance, it will need the extra OP to afford that without giving up too much.
The thing most irritating about solo play is the time it takes to win. The main reasons to solo during the 0.6x is either you had too few Logistics or your fleet was full of Atlases (looting fleets up to 0.62, exploiting cash cow/xp food runs in 0.65). In 0.7x, the reason to solo is endgame fleets outnumbered you, sometimes overwhelming so, and if you were outnumbered enough, your AI ships would die. Also, supply consumption.
I have the feeling that if I want to attempt to solo fleets with one conventional ship, I probably need to sink every last point in all the relevant combat boosting skills and ignore every campaign relevant skill in the game. It probably is not worth it. It probably would not save my ship from getting swarmed by a bunch of small fry and getting mauled. In 0.7x, frigate hordes were the most dangerous threat, but bigger ships had a chance. I doubt they do now.
It seems carriers and fighters are very powerful, and if I want to solo fleets, my best bet is to pick a good carrier, get the best fighter skills, and enough combat ability to support fighters with long-range kinetics. That said, I have not found Hyperion yet, nor have I progressed far enough to afford a capital. However, I am not sure if I want to haul a capital much unless I want to kill townsfolk or prepare for Remnant battlestation invasion.
In any event, fleet action is probably the most powerful option, and mitigating those costs would be very nice. So far, Industry seems the most attractive because I can recover ships, arm them with junk, pay pennies for deployment, and not fuss over a casualty (i.e., reload game as soon as I lose a ship). If the maluses are pain, then I guess I can get that level 3 perk that halves the penalties. At that point, weapon and crew replacements are probably the bottlenecks.
Now, Starsector feels like Endless Sky. In Endless Sky, you could solo enemies if you want to, but it is so much easier to smash things with a dozen or so heavy warships (unless player captures the Pug Arfecta godship). Here, with minor skill bonuses for solo ships, it is probably better to get skills that help everyone (or make the campaign easier) and rely on a big enough fleet for firepower.
Missiles are weak. Salamanders are unreliable. Now, if I want missiles on a big ship, I want Converted Hangar. Fighters are missiles, and those missiles shoot more missiles, and some of those missiles actually hurt things! As for those that cannot use a hangar, missiles may be a "Why Not" option and get mounted as filler.
One more comment about 0.8 for now: This is the first version that features significant non-renewable resources. You survey planets, they are done, no more. You loot wrecks, they are gone. You kill Remnants, they (may) be gone (not sure about that). If the player plays long enough to suck the whole dungeon dry, he would be left with bounties or factions in town to kill.
