Various assorted comments:
Doubled XP gain sounds fun, although I guess this was done because player cannot fight as much as before due to various reasons. I hope killing everything that moves remains a viable playstyle - that is fun.
Economy only a means to an end; that is, to get the ships, weapons, and food needed to fight and wage war for the power gained from leveling, which leads to superior performance in action-filled arcade-y combat - the real point of the game (for me, at least).
Only one tug per ship. That means Atlas will not be so great anymore, at least until Navigation 10 and Augmented Engines are available.
I agree with Midnight Kitsune's concerns. Navigation 10 (and Mechanical Engineering 7 for Augmented Engines) feels required, at least for those who want to use ships bigger than frigates. Any fleet moving slower than burn 6 is too slow. Being unable to catch and destroy common scouts and raiders cuts off a valuable source of experience and income. Yes, such fleets are not worth much individually, but there are a lot of them, and they add up.
I have relied Oxen to keep my speed up to 6 or 7. Without them, I will stick to frigate swarms until endgame, when I can afford Navigation 10 and more Leadership.
No more burn speed on Unstable Injectors sounds painful for Easy start, if the Mule remains. Burn speed 5 is not fast enough - I will sell the Mule (but keep the Medusa) for something faster.
Unstable Injector will still be highly desired by most ships for the speed boost in combat, if Augmented Engines is not available.
Doubled prices for ships could make boarding desirable ships more rewarding and/or useful.
Smaller pursuit sounds good. I almost always keep Hyperion in my fleet solely for pursuit battles. Anything else felt too long before something took damage - so much that I auto-resolved all pursuits if survivors were not a problem.
You know, even if this is technically a nerf, it makes the Wolf so much more fun to play. The reasoning behind the change was to remove the control conflict that having omni shields on a ship with a significant portion of its firepower on front-facing hardpoints, which is especially an issue for frigates (and other ships that turn quickly).
I can agree that this is a nerf. I got used to omni-shields with frigates (that lack 360 shields). It is easier to defend against missiles with omni-shields when PD is weak or not enough.
I don't think it's a death spiral if to enter it you have to literally make everyone in the Sector mad at you, and not just a little mad, but "we will not rest until you're gone from this world" mad.
In gameplay terms, it should add more tangible differences between different playstyles. Smuggler? You can trade with pirates. Bounty hunter? Maybe if you're careful to walk the line, but probably not.
What about "Eliminator" or "Overlord", that is one who wants to fight everyone until their factions are eliminated and the whole sector becomes his, like in Risk? I would like to make my own faction (or hijack an existing faction and make it mine if creating my new faction is impossible) and destroy the rest. After all, one cannot rule the sector with competition (i.e., Hegemony/Tri-Tachyon getting in the way). I am sure all factions would view such an upstart, after revealing himself, as an existential threat.
Re: High Intensity LaserI think high-intensity laser needs more damage. For the same OP, autopulse laser outperforms it in every way except range, due to initial spike damage and hard flux. Aside from theme configurations (such as all-beam Paragon), I cannot think of any time I want to use high-intensity laser over autopulse laser.
Re: MissilesDo medium pods still have twelve missiles, or were they doubled to twenty-four? Four shot salvos will burn through twelve missiles very fast, and the idea of blowing 10 OP for a three-shot feels like a waste.