Gave it a quick whirl, but not for too long since I'm trying to do the 7drl
It's definitely looks pretty polished at this point, though the UI needs a wee bit more work. Overall it looks like it's coming up nice and solid.
Still haven't done a single thing with my main ship, so I dunno how much ship control really is going to be a part of it...
Also, I really like the resources system: you set planets to export, import or store food/production points. Then, if you build transport ships and assign them to goods transport, they will act according to the needs. The more ships you have, the more transportation ends up happening. Of course, this probably means that you'll be able to camp the trade routes with your ship (in that sense it seems close to an RTS), trying to attack the enemy's transports. Some pretty nifty tactics might end up emerging if these are possibilities!
The reason this system is interesting is that you'll be hard put to find any very decent planes, so when you colonise something barren you'll have negative food production. You'd better have some planet set to export food, and transport ships to take food there so the population can survive. Plus, since there's very little population on the new planet, production is all allocated to food or so, so having production stuff shipped there allows you to get the first few buildings up
These are pretty nifty mechanics so far
It feels maybe like a lightweight Distant Worlds, where there is a very visible impact on the trade routes and such. Looking forward to playing more of it, and seeing it evolve!