A few comments/critiques on .523, with a focus on UI. A few of these comments reiterate points I've made before.
Build Menu stuff
If you have the Ark (or a flagship) in a larger control group then there isn't an easy way to see what's being built. (if the ark is it's own control group then hitting 1 shows the ark's build menu. If there are other ships then hitting 1 no longer shows the build menu.) I think you want to see the relevant build Queues for a control group. And to continue that point:
If there are multiple constructors in a control group then there needs to be a UI representation of the queues so I can make sure I see what's happening. Lets imagine a scenario where I have 3 flagships fighting a major battle on a planet. I think it would be good to allow the user to put everything in one control group so they could monitor all the build queues and units on the planet easily.
When you click on a starship constructor it doesn't automatically open the build menu, you have to click "(4) Build" to do that. That seems like a wasted step; when would I click on a constructor and not want to see its build status? If I hit "B" to cycle through the constructors then I wouldn't have to, but lets say that instead of cycling through 6 constructors on a planet I just want to click on a particualar one.
Miscellaneous
Some code paths for the UI don't properly close themselves when changing to a new window. If I hit Esc->2 (to open the timing window) then hit "B" to select a constructor, the timing window does not disappear (you wind up with the build menu overlapping the other menu). I think the same is also true for Esc->1 (the Debug menu). See Mantis 0019248 (The mantis bug also includes a proposed patch that fixes the problem)
The current Gold of the planet links in the galaxy map looks less vibrant/exciting and more dull than the other colours. Is there a way we could make it "more golden" somehow?
It's hard to tell how close your cloaked ships are to running out of cloak-health.
Some sort of warning for "AI Wave attacking!" would be nice. I often miss it. Also, there needs to be better UI around important events (next wave warning, CPA warning, exo warnings, Nanocaust warnings).... In AIWC there was a specific box that had all such things listed in bright colors.
There's no icon in the tooltip for Zombifying Guns, and there are some in the game (Teuthida Drones for one, which are terrifying to face).
When you hover over a planet right now you get a graphical element with the planetary resources (metal, fuel, etc). I think this graphical element should also show strength of forces and a concise list of the enemy forces there as well. This might be alleviated by improving the Sidebar:
Sidebar specific stuff:
I feel like right now the sidebar could be made more useful. At the moment it basically tells you "There is at least one of unit type X", and a total overall strength/squad count for everything on the planet. Also, the various types of icons aren't sufficiently delineated. It looks like they are grouped by type (turret, guardian, fleetship, etc) but there's nothing to make it easy for the eye to pick out where one group begins and ends. You basically have to read the entire sidebar every time to you want to learn anything.
In addition, for the sidebar I feel like the ship type icon is too large and the flair/mark too small.
If you have 3 or 4 flagships/golems and your ark there are a ton of "one thing per line" entries, enough that it looks silly.
