Been trying a serious playthrough post-shields and here's a few observations:
Balance:
*Turrets: These feel very fragile (some of them more so than others). Since these are the first line of defense and may need to hold their own until fleet can arrive, I think a substantial buff to health pool would make them fulfill their role better
*Ark: I would like to get more out of this unit. Feels more of a liability than a "King" as it stands. It makes sense that we shouldn't be bringing it to AI planets unless there's a juicy hack. In that vein, I would like to see some defensive hacking options as well. Sensor hacks that reduce AI range on your planet, for instance. This would give player more utility while also making tough decisions--do I try to get that design downloaded or use hack points to defend crucial chokepoint?
Learning curve:
*Hacking: It needs to be obvious in tooltip how much a particular download costs, etc. It should also be clear to player that certain hacking options are unavailable after you capture a planet--had to reload because I lost access to a nice hack
*Threat: This number gets high fast and it's intimidating. It's not clear how this should affect your decision making since it's not obvious where that fleet is going (e.g. hunter v sentinel)
Will add more as I make more progress, didn't want this to be too long anyway