Quite an interesting read and looking forward to when it all gets released.
I don't want to think about the coding headache removing the permanent skills was, but yeah, I agree it is much cleaner from a player perspective.
I'll have to play with the new phase ship rules before being able to make a sensible statement about them. Although clearly at 50% and higher hard flux, the only reason to be in phase is to avoid incoming ordinance that would connect otherwise. Retreating becomes the same in phase and out - and in fact with the 0-flux bonus from Helmsmanship it is faster to retreat out of phase
I like how phase coil tuning says "Combat phase ships", which gives me hope the logistic phase ship issue has been handled.
And it feels like low tech is getting a lot of subtle buffs from some of these skills. Polarized armor is an obvious boost to high armor ships, bringing back the 85%->90% max reduction, as well as the +50% armor for calculations (admittedly scaling, but still). That straight up increases the amount of damage before minimum stops applying by 50% (at 0% flux). Assuming high flux, say, 75%, I'd guess you'd get 37.5% more effective armor for calculations, which means 1.5*1.37 that overall that minimum damage period lasts twice as long.
It does raise the question, does the scaling armor for calculations apply to damage hitting hull (in terms of minimum armor?).
And Ordinance Expertise is amazing on high OP high weapon mount count ships like the Enforcer, Dominator and Onslaught. I typically am sitting at a little over 180 OP on weapons on an Onslaught, which would be +360 flux dissipation and +3600 flux capacity. That's like if flux regulation was +60% dissipation and +20% capacity on an Onslaught, which seems good. At this point, there's probably too many skills I'd want on an Onslaught.
Combat Endurance (Elite), Damage Control, Impact Mitigation, Polarized Armor, and Field Modulation all look like they'd boost it's survivability significantly. Then there is Gunnery Implants, Ballistic Mastery, and presumably Target Analysis stacking range and damage. The generous missile mounts basically demand Missile specialization. And Ordinance Expertise is just extra flux which helps everything. Lastly Helmsmanship is buffing an Onslaught XIV from speed 23 to 30, but more importantly making it turn 50% faster. Sadly can't take everything I'd want in such a case, but having choices feels good. And officers are going to feel very different from a defensive build going to an offensive build.
To be honest, a pair of Neural linked Onslaught XIVs with a pile of personal skills looks like they should be terrifying. Combat 7, Tech 5, Industry 3 sounds crazy to me initially, but 10 personal skills buffing them both feels like low tech ballistics with old release armor survivability and probably around 1600 flux dissipation each (and potentially with resistant flux conduits+elite polarized armor, 4800 dissipation while venting, for a 4-5 second vent from full flux).
I will say, the 25 OP cost for Neural interface isn't that bad for an Onslaught, but for say a Legion or Odyssey, 25 OP feels a bit steep. Battle carriers, which tend to feel to many players to have insufficient OP for fighters and guns, are going to probably pass on being Neural linked. I guess you're worried about double capitals being the optimal use, given the DP limits on instant swap, and the large jump in OP costs on the hull mod. I'm wondering if I'd bother to use it with an Odyssey, for example. That tends to require attention 100% of the time, the AI isn't quite as good at handling some player centric builds, plus it is a 9% hit to OP. Certainly looking forward to trying it at least getting a feel for how much of a benefit fast swap is on those kinds of ships.