I think that mantis would be counterproductive in the short term, because it's not conductive to discussion. So I've made a new subforum that is specifically for ideas suggestions. In that subforum, things are not mantis-like. They are more conversation-oriented. So the posting guidelines there will naturally be different, and I'll post about that there.
In terms of game balance adjustments, a lot of that we'll be accepting super direct feedback on from players during the whole timeframe where players have access to the game (from the earlier-than-early-access folks on up through release and after). A lot of the nitty-gritty of these bits frankly doesn't even need to involve Keith and myself, so long as folks in the forums can agree on it. To some extent that will help us focus on more central issues that you CAN'T mod. In places where agreement can't be reached, we'll obviously step in and decide one way or the other on the official build, and then those that are unhappy with that can play with their own modded version.