"Moving Slowly"
Love all of it. More depth to movement is something i've rambled about a ton, and this is exactly the kind of stuff that I was hoping for. Intuitive changes that can make looking at the map more interactive as you figure out how to approach something, and what skills you might use to do so.
"Skill system revamp:"
Obviously hype to see how this goes. I'm sure there will be some initial rough spots but in general i think skills systems are something that should be fun, and often aren't, so any game experimenting there is heading in the right direction in my book.
"Officers:"
Great. Love that they're capped at 5 now, felt kinda tedious before.
"Added "personal contacts" mechanics:"
Very hype for this. I'm hoping it gives some depth to the fleet communication/relations that exist.
"Adjusted AI fleet compositions:"
Glad to hear this. "ALL THE CAPITALS" felt odd in a lot of ways, but especially for pirate armadas. Power should scale without having to just send X of the biggest thing.
"Can use a story point to recover an otherwise unrecoverable derelict ship (only applies to derelict ships found in the campaign, not during a combat encounter)
Some ships (such as REDACTED ships when the player doesn't have the proper skill) are not recoverable this way"
Maybe i'm reading this wrong, but won't this lead to "always have 1 story point" situations because you don't know when it'll come up and matter?
"Requires fuel and heavy machinery (consumed) and an Alpha Core (not consumed)"
In general i love the idea of expanding the uses of items like this. Having X item in inventory lets you do Y is often decently interesting progression, especially when its something like a core that can get you in trouble.
"Pirate bases should no longer spawn in systems with neutron stars/pulsars"
Have to say i'm kinda sad to see this. I was hoping for a more creative solution, such as making it kinda rare/special and with some wonky effects. Something like having a few results where either they're totally unprepared so their fleets are just a mess, or they have some special feature/items that you normally wouldn't find at a pirate base so it's worth visiting, or even them being some sort of super high tech pirates so the base is actually a high tech with high tech ships sort of thing.
"Colonies/exploration/related:"
All sounds interesting.
"Revamped ground raid mechanics"
As always love all of this for adding more depth and not just being a dialogue option you mash through.
"Combat:"
In general lots of qol and i've already talked before about how I like that buoy's are now going to introduce beginners to the idea of post combat start deployments/retreats.
"Ships/systems:"
Brawler- losing damper field feels sad. Maybe it's more fun to pilot but it made it a great AI ship.
Onslaught- awesome.
Gemini- Interesting. It's a favorite of my early game so i'm curious to see how it plays out.
Drover- I like this, especially more cargo nerfs in general. The "support" section of your fleet feels incidental right now, and it really should be more of a cost.
"Weapons/fighters:"
I like basically all of this. Feels like trying to bring things in line rather than just playing wack a mole with what's currently good. Always more interesting because it keeps fun things fun.
"Hullmods:"
As always i love anything that makes civilian ship sprites more likely to wind up on screen. If time is going to be spent making it then it should have a reason to show up in battle even if it's niche. Very curious how the "remove fighter bays" thing will play out. Shield shunt also seems like it should be fun to play with.
"Ship AI:"
Quality of life heaven.
"the rest"
All good.
Can't wait until we can mess with it.
