I played the alpha for the first time yesterday, and here are some things that stuck out right away and some suggestions for improvements:



1) Wormholes. The game or manual does not explain them anywhere (that I saw), so here I am sitting in my small corner of the galaxy with about 5 systems to explore that are isolated by wormholes. I know that those wavy, impassable cosmic strings mean something, and they are passable cause I see enemy ships using them, but I am lost until I accidentally happen to research the proper technology to use them. I would suggest doing something like having a tooltip come up if you hover over it long enough telling you what technology you need to research to pass it, or if you try to set a course past a wormhole or click on it you could get a popup with the same information. If this information already exists somewhere, making it more accessible would definitely help out n00bs like me.



2) Tech tree/wheel. The big issue I had with the tech tree is that there was no way (that I saw) to get a detailed description of what each piece of technology researched unlocks. The names are there, but they are not very helpful in a lot of cases (such as most of the system upgrades). I would suggest having a button/dropdown/tooltip somewhere on each node that displays a detailed description and the stats on what exactly it is you are unlocking by doing the research. That at the very least should save me from having to blindly pick tech to research that sounds like it might unlock what I want it to. Also, I don't know if this is a bug but sometimes when queuing up research the controls seem to break, and instead of queuing up additional nodes that I click on it keeps replacing the currently active research with the one I just clicked on, and continues doing this until I restart the game. Once again if the information regarding the above already exists somewhere, please consider making it more accessible/noticeable to help us n00bs out.



3) Simultaneous turn annoyances. Long story short, the AI loves to wait until after I click my end turn button before sending fleets through the wormholes on my borders, and then moving them again before I can act on my next turn to get large fleets past my defenses. IMO this defeats the purpose of using wormholes as a defensive line (due to them using up all movement). The easiest way I can think of to fix this is add a "defend" option to your fleets so that they will automatically intercept the fleets of anyone you are not at peace with. Or maybe have a global or system-specific option that notifies you when an enemy enters the system and prevents them from moving any further until you decide on your action.



4) Pre-combat. Adding a "run away" and "stand down" option would be nice. If an enemy fleet attacks you and you don't want to fight, you could elect to run away which would automatically send your ships on a course for the nearest friendly system. Stand down would be used if you attack an enemy fleet then change your mind before the fighting starts, basically allowing you to cancel your attack orders (this would not stop the enemy fleet from still attacking you though). Standing down would also work well with the Defend option I brought up in #3, as it would allow you to catch anyone trying to fly past your defenses and then decide whether or not to take them out.



5) Retreating. Consider adding a retreat option/power card to combat. If the escape is successful your fleet would automatically set a course for the nearest friendly system. This would of course open up new potential technologies/power cards for trapping enemies so they can't run away and the counter-technologies to allow escapes anyway.



6) Colonizing. I think it would be useful to add a Colonize button to the system screen if there is a colony ship in the system. That way you can colonize from the system screen without having to go select the fleet to do it. Or maybe add the button to the planet, like when you do in-system colonization and moon surveys.



That's it so far, I think I got most of what really stuck out when I was playing into the wee hours of the morning....

1. Seconded

2. You can hover over the icons for each tech unlocked. Try hovering over different parts of the tech item and see what pops up.

3. I believe that is an acknowledged bug.

4. Seconded

5. On the list of to-do items for beta

6. Why not? Seconded.