I bought the emperor edition of the game, and have put in several hours into the game and I must say, for an indie game its quite well done, and stable for an alpha build ( Only crashed once after 300 turns. ). As of right now, most of what I can see about the games design is good ( Trading I don't quite understand or its not implemented I can't tell which) but the main concern I have is with the combat as of now. The concept behind it I love, Fleets fighting it out in large broadsides with ships exploding on both sides, it just looks awesome in general. particularly in early game ( before the horribly imbalance of weapons rears its ugly head in late game, but that can be addressed it beta.). One major concern with the combat is after doing 3-4 battles it already starts to look copy and past. The change in background is rather well done, but the ships always come from the same angle every time, and go out the same way. I'd like them to come in at different angles, like maybe coming it at each other, or both at an angle, where, when the fleets actually reach 'melee' the fleets actually merge with each other, and eventually jump out or back away at the end. Another addition would be the addition of more cards... alot more cards, and probably nerf the ones present in some ways.I feel the cards shift things way to much, or make things to strong one way or another. A well placed or wrong placed card can end the battle in one turn and gives no room for error, or bad luck. Early game I remember the somewhat thrill of doing fleet combat of one ship vs 2-3 pirate ships, and having well placed cards and luck, managed me to win the fleet action even when I had less strength than them.