I found the game recently and have been having fun. I haven't found combat yet, but I have some suggestions for the UI (marked --) and a few ideas that could add depth (marked //).
*Research
--Create a missile scratch pad. Instead of researching an engine and then seeing if it will work for a missile, design the missile first and have a section where you tweak the engine. Then both can be created as research projects. Turrets would also benefit from this.
--Add Missile and Turret design to the Ship Design and Research Projects pages. Also, add an SM button to Instant them.
--On the Technology Report screen (displaying researched components), list the most recent, relevant technologies along-side to the right, plus relevant projects underway. I. e. , it shows I have a 12cm Laser component, have the 15cm technology, and am researching both Visible and Capacitor 3. (Possibly with completion dates. ) This will help me decide when to work on my next new component.
//Allow design of ships with unresearched components. Add a prototype checkbox to the Ship Design page; when checked, components with uncompleted research projects are visible. Add a line to the RST on the Research page saying it "is used in # designs" as a guard against accidental deletions.
//A related idea, allow shipyards to retool for and start building prototyped ships. There may be a premium paid of extra space, time, or minerals to represent not knowing exactly how everything will fit together. And the project only completes up to (say) 100%-2x the % taken by the unresearched components.
*Task Forces
--Apply "order filtering" to the automated order drop downs. Fleets without Survey Sensors should not have to wade through lots of survey orders.
--A "team bus" order would be useful. Something to bounce my Geoteam from colony to colony or, when that gets finished, to the next nearest body would be useful.
//A formation visualized would be helpful. Something like the system display, showing the fleet, its sub-fleets, and how they are arranged. Little toggles for sensor and weapon ranges and moveable distance per increment would be great.
*Education
//Make the academy an assignable position. An officer there passes on some of her specializations.
//Track the top graduates over their years of training and permit a measure of control. Year 1, get a sense of their general quality. Y2, choose which kind of service they will provide. Y3 and Y4, nudge them into specialties. This likely calls for graduating classes, instead of officers being spit out throughout the year.
//Build specialist schools attached to the academy which raise the odds and degree of officer boni but do not increase the number of officers generated. For instance, a School of Mines greatly increases the likelihood of Mining, with lesser increases for Xenoarcheology, Survey, Logistics and others.
//Allow a quality / quantity slider. Get 2. 5 officers/academy year with great bonuses, 5 as current, 7. 5 who are a bit bellow average, or 10 who rarely have bonuses. Good for dealing with rapid expansion or trying to build back up a core after serious losses.
*Bugs
--I'm sorry to say this, but there needs to be a lot of attention to trapping errors, avoiding them, and providing more informative messages. I can understand missed corner cases. The tendency to miss an entry and lock the game because of a messed up read or right from something routine is less pleasant.
