I'm mostly a lurker, but also just wanted to add that I am so excited for this.  :) I've literally been getting into a habit of checking this forum every day.  Can't wait for release and to help test it out (or whatever the next steps, upon the first release, will be)!

Glad to read about these updates. My hype for this rewrite is beyond description.

Still a bit too much overhead on fire controls for my liking.
I don't get the meson weaponry, they don't mix well with lasers. 15cm lasers would match your maximum FC range and work quite well as dual-purpose weapons - turreted or not. They'd probably be my main armament, but big guns and especially the spinal monstrosity have their appeal.

Propulsion plant is overstressed and inefficient. 3 engines with power between 1.0 and 1.3 and 2.5m fuel would achieve considerably better performance (almost twice the range or 30% higher speed or a bit of both) at lower fuel consumption.

Better armoured and less well armed than I like similar ships, but not unreasonably so. With the above caveats, it looks quite functional.

For the Mesons, it's my "to go" weaponry for mid range combat and PD, since I tend to assume armored ships for targets. Also same reason why the I'm using big lasers, including the spinal monstrosity. More armor have a rather exponential effect on how hard a target is to penetrate, since it's not all that likely to consistently hit the same spot, specially against bigger vessels. As such, smaller guns will end having to either sandblaster the enemy or luck out on shock damage. I am considering dropping the mid size lasers for other weaponry, since while they do allow for some extra weight of fire they don't really offer greater penetration, although they help against shields. Might consider plasma cannonades or microwaves for shield depleting, but I need to think about it.

On the engines, I somewhat agree, but having trouble keeping the ship light. If I can find the tonnage I might reduce effiency to 2/3 of what it currently is, and go for 3 1600 engines instead of 2 2400 ones. Still, the ship is already a bit underarmored for my tastes (yes, I do like overly armored ships  ), so I'm unsure if I will find the tonnage for this iteration. Maybe next time I accept a general size increase in my fleets.

Still a bit too much overhead on fire controls for my liking.
I don't get the meson weaponry, they don't mix well with lasers. 15cm lasers would match your maximum FC range and work quite well as dual-purpose weapons - turreted or not. They'd probably be my main armament, but big guns and especially the spinal monstrosity have their appeal.

Propulsion plant is overstressed and inefficient. 3 engines with power between 1.0 and 1.3 and 2.5m fuel would achieve considerably better performance (almost twice the range or 30% higher speed or a bit of both) at lower fuel consumption.

Better armoured and less well armed than I like similar ships, but not unreasonably so. With the above caveats, it looks quite functional.

Another suggestion from my side:
Area Defense PD mode right now is quite useless, as many missiles can skip through the entire PD range in a single increment. I'd suggest to make all Area PD beams also get in a Final PD shot. (The Area PD should first try to engage final inbound after all Final PD weapons fired, if none are available, engage one in range if possible)
Thus beams would get at least 1 shot in, possibly 2, depending on range. This would make longer range on PD more appealing, as currently there is little advantage for any of the range upgrades, because all the shots are fired at 10k range anyway.