Wow, that's a lot of bullet points
Really glad to see that you're still polishing combat, the AI and missile changes should mix things up again. (I'm just afraid that the Cerberus is completely at the mercy of missiles now.)
But of course I'm most excited to see the campaign shifting away from battle grinding being the only way of progression. I can't wait to try out every trader playstile I can think of
Oh, and... did you really double weapon end engine health again, so it's now quadrupled? Or did you just forget that you already listed that change in the June update?
(And a rather late suggestion about this:
The pips on the weapon arc indicator will glow red when there's a danger of friendly fire
They could glow yellow when neutral objects (asteroids, wrecks) obstruct the fire path.)
Only thing I might suggest taking a look at before the update is the "Stabilized Shields" hullmod. The way it currently works, it sees automatic use on any ship where Stabilized Shields is cheaper than an equivalent amount of vents (like the Apogee or Sunder, for instance). Although it's not OP or anything, it seems a little too easy to get access to, requiring only a 1 point investment into Applied Physics. Maybe move it up a little bit in the skill tree to make it require a bit more dedication to get (like rank 3-5 or something)?
Yeah, at the moment you only have to do some math to know if its worth it, plus a rough estimate of how much time your shields will spend activated. Not an interesting choice.
Maybe if the upkeep cost reduction were much greater (99%, so the speed penalty is preserved?) but the shield activation speed would be severely reduced (to 20%?)? Then equipping this hullmod would force you to plan ahead further, make you stronger while you're in control but weaken you against surprises.