This is where its taking, Bad Inspiration from Endless Space. (If they are at all.) Pirates were novel, but much to strong for the early game. For the some hours I've placed into the game. I often lost most of my fighters, and my only ship is in the grey. By the time the two other ship come back, I have to give them a tithe of 3 percent or just lose everything and be stuck at 10. Pirates are fine in the game. Its just always having them there at the start, is just one more reason to Auto start over, until you find a decent starting location.
I really hope Ground Invasion get fleshed out. If there a road map for that I'd love to read it. In most 4X game, ground combat (understandably) gets terribly sideline, but invading a fucking planet, should be really epic, and it's a space to help differentiate the races some more. Since you can include totally different Doctrines for their ground ponders. My thoughts for this, are just much to grand for this game. I dont mean that in snide way. The 4X game I've been dev'ing, is a Civilization to Master of Orion 4x game. Conquer the planet and then the stars. For that game, having fleshed out ground combat is part of the whole thing. Its been really fun marrying the two games together to share as much as possible.
I feel that I dont understand how resources are peddle through my empire, and I feel that I can't influence it. Like, I can look at the resource tab, and see that I have positive Red Ball, but then my Colonizer is still waiting on 100 units of Red Balls. I would like the ability to have agency in that, even if its just MoO2 Freighters, or at least understanding. I would also love if the Planet Summary can tell if its lacking Resources. I would love it even more, if it could tell me if the amount is being fed (even slowly) or not fed at all. But I dont think thats rightly possible with the space thats available.
I dont quite understand the Tech Glob at all. I think I understand some of it. I think there overall arching fields, then there Research Goals, but I am really lost what the Red Color means and what the Number Means. I assume bigger number is Harder Science? I dont really know. I feel directionless right now, and I dont if thats from lack of understanding yet.
What does ship experience do?
Ship Building is neat. I really like the idea of Decks, and I like the subtle way you've shown us some ships are much larger through how large the components are for each ship. I know this has been said, but any none square ship equipment needs rotatable.
And this is probably the biggest thing which I can stress, and is not an intensive fix either. The valid building nodes inside the ship. We the players, won't really consider it very immersion breaking, if they don't perfectly represent the artsy fartsy picture of the ship. What matters most, is just symmetry. There also lots of totally pointless valid building nodes. Maybe I haven't gotten far enough into the game, but I dont think there any Engine Components that are 2x1 as an example. It also feels frustrating that there would be enough room for two Nuke Engines, but its inverted L corner.
Also don't give us ship components that can't fit in the ship. Why springs to mine readily, is the Fighter Bay for Stations.
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What in the world is the next Generator Tech after Nuclear? I cannot find it. I cant tell if its Antimatter or the P named one.