I decided to post this on the forum rather than discord due to the length, as its easier to organize here.

Technical Preview 1 - SitRep

General Overview

I'm actually quite impressed with the game considering its current state, based on your warning I expect a game on much shakier ground. But its playable all the way through, with minimal bugs or slowdowns. General game is working, I was engaged and enjoying myself. All the fundamental mechanics are working. In short, solidly impressed. Most of my report is going to dig into the areas that need work (as obviously that's where you need the feedback), but to be clear, I am pretty happy with my runs so far.

My very first frustration

When I first started playing the game, I tried to select all of the ships that were available, but could not. I tried shift and control clicking, I tried numerous commands. It became extremely frustrating that the selection wasn't working, and I assumed it was a bug. It wasn't until the 2nd game that I realized those were garrisons which I could not select.

Right now there is no differentiation of these ships until you actually click on one. A visual differentiation is important to prevent user confusion.

Exotic Materials

While the exotic material system is interesting, it has three key flaws when it comes to Capital Ships:

• If a capital ship is destroyed earlier, there is no way to replace it. It takes a herculean effort to afford a replacement capital ship: 9 research stations, Exotic Factory tech, Exotic Factory, 2 exotic elements, and then the cost of the ship itself. It is so pricey that losing your ship in the early game is effectively game over....which is a terrible user experience for newer player, and will turn early multiplayer into capital ship snipes.
  
  
• Once your over the hump, it turns capital ships into commodities. Sins 1 had a good balance of capital ship to general fleet in my opinion. The capitals were super useful but balanced but their special fleet supply cost. Sins 2 makes it insanely difficult to build even 1 extra capital, but once you do, you can just start cranking them out.
  
  
• There is nothing terribly interesting about exotic materials. They are at the end of the day a placeholder for a Credit/Metal/Crystal price as you just buy the materials from your exotic factories. I already have 3 resources to balance, I don't need more than that, especially when there is nothing truly special about exotics.

All in all, I prefer the Sins 1 approach of special capital ship fleet supply. It works a lot better to rebuild destroyed ships.

Auction System

This isn't an auction currently, its a blind guess because you can't see the current bids....which is not how auctions work. I should be able to see the current top bid and decide to beat it. Further, it seems that anytime I bid those resources are permanently lost, again not how auctions work. Either this should be rebuilt to work like an auction, or at minimum be given a different name.

Markets

I really miss the ability to sell metal/crystal at the beginning of the game, a lot. Early game you are desperate for credits and have more metal/crystal than you need if you build your initial economy right. I think meeting the minor factions could increase your market power in some way, but I want the option to at least sell right off the bat.

Ship UI

I would like the ability when a ship selected, and I hover over an enemy ship, that the DPS numbers reflect the armor value of the target, to give me a real understanding of how the armor and DPS are interacting. Right now its a total guessing game, the DPS value of the ship has no value, as most everything has at least some armor. I want to understand how much damage my cobalt frigate actually does versus a heavy cruiser, a shrikuen frigate, a flak frigate, etc.

Planet Balancing

Right now the only planets I consider good are Asteroids/Moons/Terran planets, with maybe desert on occasion. Other planet types are garbage.

Asteroids and Moons are easy to get to a breakeven point, just 1 commerce build is all you need. So they are great to secure territory and give me a civilian building. Deserts can be developed into decent planets with enough investment. All of the other types have a high upkeep, they often require a second technology tier to unlock all potential modules, and they really don't offer many benefits beyond what an asteroid can give me. Credits is my main issue through most of the game, I don't need bad planets sucking away my income on upkeep, not to mention the tech expense early on.

The Slow Return on Investment of Planet Improvements

Take for example your initial starting world, and upgrading it to Commerce 2. It takes 1 minute and 475 credits to get an extra 1 CPS. So it takes a hair under 9 minutes for the upgrade to actually start providing benefit, though we haven't even factored in the metal and crystal cost.

While Sins is a longer game in general, I feel like these times are a bit too long.

On the flip side, I can go mining 3 on my initial world, get 1 metal extractor, and be set on metal/crystal for a LONG time, the gains there are just very large.

Tech Tree

• I want each tech to only be in one area, I find that they show up in multiple trees confusing.
• Fleet supply is working exactly as needed, doesn't need any changes.
• Capital Ships: The phrase "Capital Ship, Titan Component" was very confusing in my first few games. It took a while for me to understand you meant "Capital Ship and Titan components", so I would rephrase.

Military Defenses

• I find the Autocannon and Gauss Cannon a needless split. I like having a lower slot short range option, and then I have my hanger bays for my big slot investment. I don't need 2 guns where one does more damage and has more slots, they fundamentally serve the same purpose.

Planet Rotation, Phase Lane Shift

This is a very cool concept, but I think the UI on it can use some work. Its hard to really understand how things will shift around over time. Personally what I would like to see, if have all possible phase lanes showing in the game, clear are the active ones, green are the ones it will go to next, and maybe red are not activating for a while. That way its very clear where I can go, and how things will shake up in a few minutes.

I will say it is frustrating to come back and see that half of your fleet got split apart because of a bad timing on the phase lane shift, and suddenly your fleet is facing the enemy at half strength and gets killed. I wish there was something in the formation phase jump to help mitigate that.