A thought on champions:
My mentality on champions is a bit off because of how I'm thinking about them. I'm not thinking in terms of AI War, but in terms of actually developing a character. In terms of developing a character, I like long-term development that can, if I am so persistent, result in going even beyond specialization into mastery of everything. I'm talking like, on the Elder Scrolls level of how hard it is to make a maxed out character stat and skill-wise in say Oblivion... but without that sort of leveling system. Champions, to me, don't really "feel" like a bonus ship. They feel like a character I should be able to develop in all kinds of spectacular ways.
While that must be partly what you're going for, the weird thing is sort of how the unlocks work. I imagine eventually, champion modules and hulls will get so plentiful that you will eventually not be able to get all or even most branches in one game. It's more of a "You get what you get" like bonus ships are. Developing a character with that sort of sense ends up bothering me probably more than it should. It feels like an RPG, I feel like I should be able to do everything and save the world when that is obviously not the case.
So... any of my XP gripes or likewise are because I only ever thought of it the wrong way. Would you say that's about right?