A few assorted responses, before I get back to playtesting
Re: front shield conversion etc - I'll take another look at the OP costs.
Something must have happened to the Eagle if playtesting is reverting the most important change: speed. I was excited to try the faster Eagle because that was my #1 complaint. I figured the 18 DP would be the first thing to go if it needed walked back but I didn't expect the speed change. I'm sure the meta game has changed with new weapons and hullmod options but it being nearly "too strong" at 20 DP is kind of surprising.
It's still in the "keep an eye on it" stage and I particularly want to use it during my playtesting. But it's a combination of things - the direct buffs, the Graviton change, the Ion Beam change, Missile Autoloader, cheaper burst PD. It all added up to something that felt like a bit much in actual practice.
Apogee change is actually quite a shock. It's still in a hardpoint and the Large and Medium won't really converge but that's a lot more potential firepower vs. current.
The goal is to give it more flexibility in loadouts. If the overall power is out of line, then it could definitely be pulled back in different ways - an extra point of DP, a bit less flux capacity, something like that.
"Medusa: adjusted misaligned engine nozzle" - truly the unheralded diamond in the rough. 
Yes! There were a few other
critical fixes of this nature that I think didn't make it in the notes.
you should probably check the code for shipEngineAPI.disable(boolean permanent)
if there's only one engine left, it won't disable the engine, not even permanently
The last ship engine can't be disabled while an engine-boosting system is on. (This isn't the right thread for this, though; let's keep it on-topic.)
Do we know the s-mod bonus for insulated engines yet? Brawler (TT) is going to be meta as hell.
An extra 100% engine health and the sensor profile reduction is changed to 90% (from 50%).
Oh wow heavy ballistic integration can get a bonus 
It doesn't! Not every hullmod has s-mod effects, and in particular ones that are just hull features and can't be installed on arbitrary ships don't have any.
(Militarized Subsystems) Well, now it's an expensive hullmod that feels like it "doesn't do anything" - and if you have Bulk Transport skill, it actually makes the ship slower. Maybe it could be cheaper since it comes with its own drawbacks anyway.
Not every build is going to have industry! The hullmod basically exists to negate the penalties of civgrade at a cost. Perhaps it could be cheaper OP-wise, though; definitely open to that possibility.
CampaignUIRenderingListener is very nice, but i can't help but think the only use for it is drawing overlays, as you don't ever know if you have the panel you want to edit up and where.
Pretty much the main thing it's intended for! Modding the core UI is, as you say, much more involved.
Does this mean you can pick up the goods, as long as your standing with the colony is above -50 or does the mission won't be offered, if your standing with the colony is too low?
(Right now this mission can always be offered but you can't pick up the goods, if your standing with the faction is at -25 or below.)
Ahh, thank you - I'll take a look and make sure it's doing the right thing. Good chance it might not be.
That is still on the list for the playtesting? (Or is it done and not worth mentioning?)
Ah! I remember fixing this, so it looks like this just didn't make it into the notes. Thank you for the reminder, though!
I’m curious to know if the new autoloader plus sabots is going to be a viable alternative to the needler for frigates.
The needler has been king for flux and OP efficiency, and everything that can’t get it feels a bit hampered.
That will be interesting to see, though even with the Autoloader, you've got, what, 9 Sabots? Nothing to sneeze at, but not something that couldn't get spent in a hurry, either. With Missile Spec and EMR you'd get up to 15 but that's a *lot* of investment for - at that point - diminishing returns.
Two fullerene spools now, but shouldn't some of the other colony items appear in the core worlds as well?
(Well I guess accessibility boosters to prevent permanent shipping shortages are needed more)
I don't particularly want the core to provide *all* the items; that steals some thunder from exploration. I could even see removing the spool from Umbra and replacing it with story-point "improvements" at the spaceport. Hmm.
(Yeah, exactly.)
Just taking a look at the "fast ships with systems that make the ship go faster" high tech roster, the new Aurora seems to look better. Prior to the buff, Aurora and Fury had basically the same shield capacity with a 50% DP difference in between. Now Aurora is about 50% more shield base, and 33% at max vents, for that extra 50% DP.
Cool - thank you for doing the math!
At this point, the only one that really stands out to me is the Odyssey, in terms of following a progression in terms of defensive stats. On the other hand, it is a capital with large mounts and 2 fighter wings - but these defensive statistics look to me like the Odyssey is meant to be a stand off ship and not get in close, when compared to ships in the smaller classes. It's slower (70 vs 80, can't back off as well), bigger and easier to hit, so it needs to rely on its range more if it has worse defensive stats than the Aurora.
Aurora is arguably significantly stronger defensively than its capital counterpart now. Aurora has 8000 hull and 800 armor backing its shields up, while the Odyssey only has 10,000 and 1000 armor at a 50% increase in DP. It is also kind of weird that the true standoff high tech ship, the Astral, has the same hull as the Odyssey, only 100 less armor, but 20,000 effective shields base (and 36,666 max vents). Admittedly, Odyssey is speed 70 while the Astral is only speed 30.
Is it normal for carriers to be tankier than their brawling ship counterparts? I know that is not true in the Onslaught/Legion comparison. Doesn't seem true in Eagle/Heron comparison (if they are both 20 DP now). Depending on if you count Damper Field or not, Mora may or may not be tankier than a Dominator though. Hammerhead is tankier than a Drover. Condor isn't as tanky as an Enforcer.
Anyways, just food for thought.
Design-wise, the Oddyssey is a battlecruiser, so that checks out - it trades defenses for firepower and moblity. I wouldn't call it a brawling ship - if it gets close, it probably wants to overwhelm quickly rather than get stuck in for a long time against equal opposition.
