Have been playing .8 to max level (40). I did scanning missions and added planet surveying of these systems to the mix. No commission, maxed faction rating with independent.
Tutorial:
Was very confusing and I restarted the game without it. Tutorial messages and objectives need their own window.
Early game:
I lost my fleet 2-3 times due to not having enough fuel while scanning. It took me a bit to notice the fuel range (and what it means) in the map overview.
Money was surprisingly easy to acquire, I guess you wanted people to do this sort of quest instead of the bounty hunting way.
* Getting money this way is definitionem too easy, risk vs reward mismatch.
Salvaging:
(I maxed out the salvaging tree).
It annoys me that you need certain skills to salvage certain things. This should be a fleet setup thing where skills only help, but not enable.
I maxed out every skill in the salvaging tree. It allows for a new playstyle, but it costs you more interesting combat. (More interesting in terms of you missing skills that enable different combat experiences).
Fighters:
(I tested different setups and my fleet is almost exclusively carrier based).
Talons don't seem too strong in general, but they are for 0 OP. I never used them outside the simulator. They are crazy against frigates and other minor targets, but what do I care? Real threats are destroyers and every size above. That's where all the other fighters shine. Still, massing them on all carriers might cause ridiculous results because of their missiles.
Dagger bomber are not worth their cost. Never used them.
Longbow, Kopesh and Piranha are all excellent. Longbow might do too much armor / hull damage, but I'm not certain. It's just that you need to pull your shield down against them.
I love Warthog, but I'm not sure if they're the best fighters for bomber support.
Level cap:
Hate it. I stopped playing once I reached level 40. I stop playing every game once there is no longer any progression. Allow me to reset my skillset, something like NG+, but keep everything else. Increase the level cap on the next run. Something you can buy ingame, a brain update or whatever. But don't force this level cap on me. I'm not going to start another game just to re-progress or try another playstyle. I just leave.
Officers:
I love them. Have maxed the skill for 10 Officers.
They're really strong and the their personality makes quit some difference. Just why do balanced Officers in carriers try to kiss the enemy fleet? I'll only use cautious Officers next time (or use Mora's).
Also, I have not managed to get one Officer with all free carrier/fighter related skills. Very annoying.
Would like to see even more different personalities in Officers in the future. Maybe add some traits?
I also don't like the Officer cap. How about Officer cost you some money for every transaction? Or a monthly salary? The cap feels artificial and out of place.
Fuel:
Non issue once you have some tankers in your fleet. NPC fleets obviously don't have the same requirements, I dislike that. But well, fighting enemy fleets consisting of 50% supply ships would get real boring real fast, so understandable design choice.
Exploration/drones:
Fighting drones get's really boring very fast. There needs a way to bypass this.
The [redacted] faction lacks variety. I like that you get swarmed by their fleets, but it's just the same thing over and over again.
Maybe add "possessed" ships? Normal ships that have been taken and modified.
Marines:
Do I need them? Haven't seen one instance where I could use them.
Surveying:
Dislike the skill requirement. Again, like for salvaging, make skills help but not a requirement.
Skillsystem.
Never should the player spend a skill point without having a direct benefit. Whatever you add, there needs to be a reward.
Combat skill tree:
Haven't spend one point there because I wanted skills from the other trees. That let me to never really participate in combat, just in support roles. In consequence, I enjoyed combat less. Why fly one of the bigger ships myself if my officers have way better skills for that? I don't see a solution for this other then having more points in the long run.
Bounties:
They don't scale if you don't go after them, right? Once 40, I wanted to do something else. Quickly abandoned that idea because fighting these tiny fleets for low profit was neither profitable nor interesting.
Command points:
Excellent idea with recharging points.
Is there a way to group carriers so that they do attack runs together? I've seen my carriers attacking solo over and over again, while one concentrated attack would have been sufficient.
Distress calls:
I almost never went after them. Reward seems minimal. Increase reward, decrease distress call frequency?