First... did not read. Sorry. Too busy playing the release, 6 whooping pages already...
- the new industry play-style is fun-tastic. Also a nice synergy with surveying equipment, just planting it on a few 4-D-mod buckets and I can survey pretty much everything for free. Huehue.
- I think it should be more obvious which factors contribute to "salvage accidents", and what reduces them. So far I am a little puzzled. After maybe an hour of game-time the loss of a few heavy machines does not hurt so much anymore, but still...
- You just had to do it... "nearly, almost,etc" always recoverable after combat. I see that there is a point, but this makes me reluctant to use expensively restored prize-ships with the AI again. What is almost? 95%? Hrmpf.
- There is no skill that reduces deployment CR drain anymore. This is sorely missed. A huge fleet of Junks probably will run okay anyway, but prolonged engagements with actual, military-grade combat vessels (that the player will not have many of...) will be both expensive and hard to handle as CR runs out much more quickly than before and also the higher durability of ships in general puts a higher strain on the CR-stat due to longer engagements. I'd like to see this come back in some form... especially as actual military ships should be able to handle longer engagements with an experienced officer in command...
- The industry tree has a bit of an issue... big fleet means little range. I'd like to see either a skill or a hullmod that reduces fuel usage in this tree. Suggestion: Skill that covers the economic aspect of salvaging/scavenging, improving sales value of scrap metal, lowers price of fuel and reduces fuel use per D-Mod (can mix it with ethanol if You don't mind damaging the engine over time, right?) and maybe lowers crew requirements somewhat (experienced scavengers etc....), also giving a fuel discount on sustained burn while incuring some penalties like higher visibility, lowered max burn or even longer change-over time. Hullmod should probably do something similar to the latter.
- I understand that the new layout means skill trees have to be a bit more mixed up, but they are extremely jumbled and I guess new players would feel overwhelmed with having to read all that and decide...
- the higher durability in general is something I noticed impacting the game a lot. The most fun player-ship-type (for me at least) is a glass-cannon, but this layout suffered with this balancing change. Part of the tactics is to take out dangerous enemies quickly, which can no longer be done as effectively. I know it was one of the intentions to make more play-styles viable, but this makes me sad, personally.
- whoooo fighters!
- whoooo fighters!... also the new carrier is one hell of an annoyance. It eats quite a bit of damage, while the fighters act as meat shield, effectively suiciding into big ordnance intended for the carrier all the time. Even more durable Hegemony fleets now... ugh...
- whooo fighters... did I mention whoo fighters... I don't know how the bombers performed in the more recent past (fighters were kind of a no-go for so long...) but those piranhas are dangerous. The bomb-wave hits everything with enormous destructive power. Lost my flag-wolf three times to my own sneaky bombers approaching and unleashing armageddon from the same angle I used to snipe a cruisers' soft parts... I'm not even mad, just this is... whow. Going to try building a junk-bomber fleet now.
- where can I find stations to atomize with my new bomber-swarm?
- the game feels vastly different to me now. Good but needs getting used to. Wish there were more pirate spawns...