Had time to play the game more, some more thoughts:
* Finally got used to the workings of the logistics rating. What makes it harder to track is while ships may show supplies per day, it does not include consumption by crew in the ships' stats. For frigates, not a problem. For capital ships, its crew add a significant chunk to logistics.
* Leadership is required just to pilot a capital ship at full effectiveness. Previously, it was possible to ignore Leadership and play the game with a lone capital ship. Now, 20 logistics is only enough for a Paragon without any crew. Add the crew and you need 25+ logistics to pilot your lone Paragon or some other capital ship.
* Fighters feel more like an accessory (read: second ship system or customizable hullmod that costs logistics instead of OP) for ships with a flight deck instead of a separate ship unit. As long as fighters are treated as such (and use one wing per flight deck deployed), rather than as units that can be amassed like frigates then sent to swarm, they work alright. Wasps cost too much - 9 compared other fighters' 2 or 3.
* Due to the increased supply consumption, freighters went from absolutely worthless to absolutely required. It is not practical to dedicate all logistics to combat ships. The only way to stockpile plenty of supplies is to salvage as much as possible, but that often produces more loot than my ships can carry, even after a single fight, unless I have a freighter or three. The Altas, along with Ox ships to speed it up, is one of the most important ships in the game. When fighting big fleets, even one Atlas may not be enough. 2500 or more supplies after one big fight seem like a lot, but my fleet of ships can eat over 1000 supplies to get back in shape.
* Hegemony Defense Fleets seem weaker now. Sure, all of their ships are still there, but they are not all bunched together like they used to. Tri-Tachyon Security fleets with a Paragon and either another capital ship and/or two cruisers are more dangerous than Hegemony System Defense fleets.
* Frigate swarms are still viable and may be even more effective than before... as long as you have an Atlas to haul all of the loot you find. Once the player gets the best equipment and skills, frigates can kill enough to win the battle before lack of stamina hurts them too much.
* Once your fleet gets powerful enough, pursuit combat becomes more common than regular combat. Frigates, especially the Hyperion, dominate pursuits.
* Repeated harrying until the whole enemy fleet is non-combat ready is too useful, especially if your fleet is not powerful enough to destroy fleeing combat ready ships before getting destroyed. For example, your frigate versus enemy capital ship. The only risk with this exploit is another fleet stealing your kills.
* Due to CR reduction after each combat, transferring command just to play each battle is really annoying! I like to change flagships between encounters, so I can avoid performing this extra required step. Pursuit auto-resolve is too incompetent for my tastes when I hunger for supplies.
* 75% CR reduction for Hyperion after each fight is excessive! How about somewhere 50% to 65%? Enough that it can fight a second battle at reduced effectiveness, but not so much that it cannot fight at all.
* The three times I tried boarding, I hard-docked the ship and sent crew (no marines) in. With the Special Ops perk, I exchanged roughly one of my crew for one of theirs (they had about 5% or less in marines, and the rest crew) and captured their ship each time. The ships I captured include an Ox, a Medusa, and an Odyssey.
* Question: How much more effective are marines than crew? They eat so many supplies that unless they have greater than 10 to 1 effectiveness, I would rather use crew instead. At least having lots of crew means I can level more of them up and ignore the skill that speeds up crew level gain.
My favorite fleet configuration is one capital ship (Odyssey), a Hyperion and/or Afflictor (pursuit dominance), Atlas (to haul loot), four or so Oxen (speed up big ships), a wing or two of Xyphos and/or Thunders, and remainder of my fleet with frigates. Losing a frigate or two hurts less than a destroyer or cruiser.
