Yay for release!
A bit early feedback:
- The help messages are nicely written, but something has to be done about the way they (can) pop up. I had as much as 5 messages pop up after my very first battle (taking too much salvage, carrying too much cargo, low CR, supply consumption increase, LR drop). And not simply in a row to click trough, but I got a message, flew for 2 seconds, got another messages and so on. All on the short trip to the station. Really annoying and, most importantly, not a good first impression for a new player. A minimum time delay between messages (~15sec) would be a first idea for a fix. That might give enough time to actually absorb the info, too.
Btw, did you give up on adding them to the codex?
- CR changes seem to work fine for me so far, I feel less inclined to cuddle up to a station all the time.
- The new pirate fleet compositions are nice and easy, a good change I think. ...though, personally, I'm already hoping for a hard mode
- The Cerberus seems very much overpriced/underpowered. If for example compared to a wolf, it costs more than twice as much, but is inferior in everything but cargo space and CR use. More practically, it seems extremely vulnerable to missiles, even for a shield-less ship. The hound can outrun missiles, the Buffalo Mk.2 has good PD + Flares. The Cerberus just dies in a missile rich environment. I actually have a hard time against a Buffalo Mk.2, much more than in a Hound. Such weaknesses are OK in principle, but seen together with the price, there's just not enough to balance it out. Mh, maybe a drone system would help?
- The Hermes seems nice and cute, will be fun to find a good role in the fleet for it. It's lore text is too long for it's box, though! (@1920x1080)
I have yet to try the two other new ships.