Where's the QA ... even those little things, if annoying and there's enough of them, can make people want to stop/pause playing...
For example, this bugger popping up, as early as around turn #32/33 in a game with "normal" progression speeds for everything I am asked to set a speed...
I can only assume it jumped out of an anomaly, insta-killing a tiny survey ship - and then, as usual, even though its sensor range is supposed to be a puny 2 hexes, it goes straight for the next ships barely in its 11 hex range...
What is your expectation this early in the game - anyone has ALL his/her ships, say, like 2-3 turns within range, I mean everything and even then I still doubt it would be enough.... this one even appeared close enough to my home system to be a serious danger for it -- given its usual "sense of direction to go" that seems to have nothing to do with its sight range...
To add insult to injury -- the only thing at this point in time that could have helped me, some "Wormhole Generator" artifacts found ... does not work at all -- click on it, click on some ship or fleet, doesn't matter if belonging to you or an enemy: the only thing happening is that artifact vanishes.... Congratulations!
Later I noticed that other artifacts for ship upgrades are not counted but somehow just flagged(?)...
Meaning: if you are unlucky enough to find more than one of the same type (especially the real nice ones like extension matrix, diablo catalyst and such, I usually like to keep those for the big ships later...) you will still only be able to spend the first one found as the [censored] game seems unable to remember the other one(s) it was supposed to stash, too!
Like others have already mentioned, the map generator IMHO is broken regarding home world placements / distances when there are more than 1 sector -- there are way too many overcrowded and completely empty sectors, there seems no way to achieve a more or less fair distribution spaced across the map.
And even when using just one sector, I often feel like I am punished for my wish to have no enemies nearby - having way fewer stars (not to mention planets/resources) in acceptable travel range than the other civs that are all lumped close together elsewhere on that single sector.
Oh and when it comes to "quality of life".... you playing your own game?
Why does it have to be that difficult to see (count) hexes for distances -- it is necessary to have the hex raster more visible, at least as an option:
For example because your wayfinding algorithm is too stupid to account for the bonus given when in my own domain -- it doesn't try to take a route that is NOT longer but stays in my own domain long enough to get that bonus ....only to find another colony ship gets there before me by those 2-4 hexes?!
For example because your auto-explore is too stupid to account for the sensor range when laying course.
For example to judge beforehand how many resources will be in range of that star base.
Oh, and when you finally found that sweet point, the stupid game doesn't allow you to use it, as it does not take your upgrades into account: Why am I not allowed to build a mining station I WANT to build there (nothing in range at this point YET), because I already have range upgrades that just 1 turn later when these upgrade module(s) are build all those 3-4 nodes ARE accessible for ONE station -- nooo, I have to waste another station to mine them all, regardless?!
No one ever had the idea to simply sort that loong unwieldy ship list alphabetically, or at least by size/type?
Or, for example, to give an option that limits the ships shown when clicking "Show Ship Designs" button and there already IS a ship type selected to only ships OF that type...?
By the way: The stupid bug in the ship designer where you have to watch for the correct highlighting of an item you choose else you cannot place it anywhere even if it is shown at your cursor - that bug is still there
