Unrelated thought: Officer portrait above the flux/CR bar on every ship looks like clutter, at least judging from the screenshot. They tell you there's an officer on board, but unless you remember which face is which officer it doesn't seem like they communicate more info than that (like the key "what combat skills will this ship have?")
Could ships instead get a "has officer" icon, with the portrait only on targeted ships and in places like the ship info card?
This shot is particularly officer-rich. It doesn't feel cluttered in practice, at least so far. The main thing the icon communicates, aside from the fact that an officer is on board, is the officer's level - which is a very good indicator of their overall strength. I did think about showing this only for targeted ships, but it's just too important a piece of information not to have up at all times. But I guess what you're suggesting would still do that, just with a smaller and different icon. Hmm. I think I like the portraits better - they look nice, convey more information if you *do* recognize the officer, and are more intuitive than a "hey, what IS that icon" that a different - and smaller - icon would be.
I really like polished and minimalistic UIs and Starsector has a very good UI all things considered.
The picture with the officers feels cluttered and takes away from the otherwise awesome and clear battlefield.
At the same time I am a bit conflicted because the portraits look very good (but just don't show them inside the battle).
While this is probably pretty low on the prioritization list I would really appreciate if you could have another look at this
"feature" at some point in the future.
I would suggest one or more of the following:
Make portrait in battle:
[1] optional (changeable via settings)
[2] press key (toggle) to show / hide
[3] press key (toggle) to minimize /maximize
[4] press key (toggle) to switch between symbols / portrait
[5] press key (toggle) to switch between symbols / portrait + let the player color-code their officers / symbols individually
While you said this picture is not representative because fewer officers are the norm, consider the SS endgame and
mods that make extensive use of this new feature. For every ship there will be an additional picture on the battlefield.
For smaller ships like frigates this picture is as big as the ship itself...
Personally I would really like to be able to replace the officer portrait in battles with just a few tiny symbols (maybe color-coded) => solution [4] or [5].
However if this is not doable the solutions [2] and [3] are also very good because they will still enable the player to quickly check
relevant information about the officers when needed. Option [1] would strip the player from this information but at least preserve
the battle-clarity.
Besides this feedback: Very good job Alex! I am looking forward to the next release.