Hopefully this is not (too) belated of a feedback post, considering I've been playing first on 0.97-RC6, then updated to RC7. I haven't updated my game to RC8, but I *did* read the relevant changelog, and I've put close to 40-ish hours in my game so far - I've reached cycle 227 ingame. With that out of the way:
First of all, huge, huge kudos for the skill tweaks and new hyperspace topography content! The former has some very interesting changes and it's made the game dramatically more fun for me. That's not to say that I wasn't having fun in prior Starsector versions, quite on the contrary, but I generally cease my playthroughs sometime after finishing the Galatia Academy storyline and reach level 15, and don't quite delve into exploring the fringe worlds or developing colonies, usually around cycle 212-214 ingame. This time around, I believe I've fought and beaten every kind of combat encounter there is, including that unique Remnant bounty. I think the disparity speaks for itself

As for the hyperspace topography abilities, the whole event feels feature-complete to me now, with rewards well worth the points grind. I hope it stays the way it is, I'm really happy with how it's turned out!
Likewise, my impression of the colony crises system is very positive - my issue with colonies so far has been that they've felt out of place and out of character (the latter is a minor personal gripe admittedly, but I've always felt that commanding and managing both a fleet and several colonies with potential population of millions would be too overwhelming for any one person, even when taking into account the adjutant role of hireable officers and administrators, respectively), but, frankly, I've just about done a 180 on my stance after playing through the colony crises. The system as a whole just fits like a glove from a ludonarrative perspective - not only is there lots of fun new fights to do (The Tactistar mercenary fight is a personal highlight, I believe it's the single best combat encounter in the game which manages to be challenging without requiring cheesy tactics/loadouts to easily beat) or avoid fighting (I appreciate the implementation of non-violent solutions to some of the crises a lot!), I finally have the impression that, I, as a colony-owning player, actually exist in the game's world as an entity to which other, established entities, react to and interact with. I suppose the colonies are now, in a word,
beliveable? I hope I've managed to get my point accross

I like the Abyss content too, though I haven't gotten around to fully exploring it yet! It's quite cozy, I'm enjoying it.
As a closing thought, I'd say that Starsector now definitively has fleshed-out early, mid and late game content (quite the journey so far, huh?) Apologies if it's still too early to ask, but I don't suppose some more narrative content would be in the works for the next version? With the game having shaped up to having well-rounded, mostly fleshed-out content from start to almost-finish, the foundation has definitely been laid for some sort of a final quest arc, a true end.
In any case, big thumbs up for all the work over the years! It's heartwarming to still enjoy a game I've enjoyed lots since I've first played it many years ago
