Well, the game is definitely trending toward "Not for first line testers only." A ton of awesome progress has been made. I can actually sit down and play the game without being deluged by bugs, and can start complaining about subtle things.
I spent a couple minutes brainstorming on "What are we missing". Hopefully this list gives y'all some ideas, though I suspect most if not all of this is on your todo lists already. I provide this list not to complain but to hopefully help guide development; that kinda goes without saying, but I like to say it anyway.
Things for game start:
Actual AI types, difficulty settings, and the ability to choose them
Ability to choose your colour and the colour of the AI (yeah, it's dumb, but I like it)
Are we getting a bonus ship type? If so, the ability to choose one of them
In-game map tunables (number of planets, etc. I might have already done some of this ;-)
An in-game tutorial (or at least the framework for it). We can't really have a proper tutorial until the game is closer to a real Beta and fewer things are subject to change, but the framework needs to exist.
Gameplay:
Showing on the galaxy map what path your ships will take between planets when moving units
Actual descriptions for all unit types
When you mouseover the resource bar, there need to be descriptions of what the resource types are in the tooltip. This is critical for a newer player.
Warnings for "Your planet is under attack". Speaking of "your planet is under attack", waves seem to be set on "Cross-planet attack" mode. Is that deliberate? I kinda miss knowing where the AI will strike and having to rush defenses there, and the sense of despair when you realize you can't get your fleet there in time. I could be open to mixing wave types; maybe sometimes a targeted planet wave, sometimes a mini-exogalactic attack wave, sometimes a "Threat reinforcement wave"...
More Music!
Generic balance improvements (I'm not sure the game is beatable right now if only because of teuthida/hunter guardian drones on high mark planets.)
Exogalactic waves? I kinda miss them
Functional multiplayer
Multiplayer across the internet (NAT punchthrough?)
More shot types (for the first-impression Cool Factor)
Overall lack of choices/strategy in gameplay (see also my comments in
https://forums.arcengames.com/private-alpha-discussion/a-few-notes-from-playing-today-(-513)/)
Three examples
Economic decision making. I loved trying to get econ command centers and maximize my income, just like in generic RTS games I liked playing high econ strategies that were weak early but strong late. AIW2's only economic choice seems to be "I need more fuel, so lets capture another planet". This requires you to take enough planets to actually build a fleet. You are much more limited by fuel than by Science. A lot of the time I have a ton of science but nothing to spend it on; I can't build more ships, and I don't have enough Power to build more or stronger turrets. I've played games a few hours in where I am sitting on 10K+ science and don't have anything useful to do with it.
Edit: some improvements have been made in this area
How to use the Ark. At the moment static defense is basically a minor roadblock for any attacking force, so in order to keep your ark safe you basically need to fleetball and keep the ark with your fleetball at all times.
Attacking enemy planets is very boring. The technique I've used most effectively is "Bring your fleet in and park it right next to the wormhole. Let the AI ships come and fight your fleetball. If their fleet is winning, run away. If you beat their fleet, then destroy the static defenses." There is zero strategy to this.
