Quality of Life and Game Suggestions

[Nentrinax]

First, this is going to be a bunch of suggestions, my apologies if these have already been suggested by others.
The game seems to be fairly complete and in depth, but it seems at times overwhelming in some management aspects, particularly with technologies, the following are some suggestions for reducing some management.

First, technologies are presently listed alphabetically, which makes the list seems somewhat chaotic. An idea would be a tree structure by category (Drives, Armour, Heat Sinks, Councilor Improvements, Relations, Aliens, Power Planets, Nation Combining, Nation Splitting, etc). This would help one be able to look for what kinds of technologies they want to research.

Many technologies are soon rendered obsolete, notably drives. It would be nice if they hide or go to a category of "obsolete", to reduce the many-page list of technologies still not researched. Many chemical drives would seem to go well once nuclear drives are developed.

Similarly, various technologies to unify groups/continents, or split nations into chunks may be uninteresting to me if I do not have that nation, or do not want to breakup a nation I control. It would be nice to be able to "flag as obsolete/unwanted" technologies to hide them in the list (with an option to show hidden/obsolete technologies if you want to restore one).

Similarly, in ship designs, Drives, Power Plants, and Utility modules could do with categories (as Weapons do). Perhaps divided into Fission, Fusion, Exotic, etc. Or Electro-Chemical/ElectroStatic, etc drive types.

Finally, a game-play issue I have experienced. Hab Assaults, with Marines, seems to ignore defense modules (such as the Layered Defense Module) on the station/outpost. It would make sense that a station should be able to fire on a hostile/approaching ship rather than letting them dock and board with marines.

Thank you for your time.

[KinSeth2]

First, technologies are presently listed alphabetically, which makes the list seems somewhat chaotic. An idea would be a tree structure by category (Drives, Armour, Heat Sinks, Councilor Improvements, Relations, Aliens, Power Planets, Nation Combining, Nation Splitting, etc). This would help one be able to look for what kinds of technologies they want to research.

There is a dropdown at the top to do this.

Many technologies are soon rendered obsolete, notably drives. It would be nice if they hide or go to a category of "obsolete", to reduce the many-page list of technologies still not researched. Many chemical drives would seem to go well once nuclear drives are developed.

Suggested many times. Probably in works with how often.

Similarly, various technologies to unify groups/continents, or split nations into chunks may be uninteresting to me if I do not have that nation, or do not want to breakup a nation I control. It would be nice to be able to "flag as obsolete/unwanted" technologies to hide them in the list (with an option to show hidden/obsolete technologies if you want to restore one).

These only pop up for you if you own a part of that nation.

Similarly, in ship designs, Drives, Power Plants, and Utility modules could do with categories (as Weapons do). Perhaps divided into Fission, Fusion, Exotic, etc. Or Electro-Chemical/ElectroStatic, etc drive types.

Maybe. Given what you said above, you shouldnt have 50 types of drives. Might be overcategorizing. But Im not going to rule it out as a useful thing?

Finally, a game-play issue I have experienced. Hab Assaults, with Marines, seems to ignore defense modules (such as the Layered Defense Module) on the station/outpost. It would make sense that a station should be able to fire on a hostile/approaching ship rather than letting them dock and board with marines.

Agreed

[Nentrinax]

The category sort method improves it some, but I still think it would be better in a tree structure where one can collapse sections.

For the nation combine/split technologies, I find I get them all even if I have never had a stake in that nation.
For example, I currently have the "Western African Community" and "Westralia Independence Movement" available, despite never having had any part of Africa or Australia. It would be useful to mark these as "Hide/Don't care" for organization purposes.

[BlackCat]

Many technologies are soon rendered obsolete, notably drives. It would be nice if they hide or go to a category of "obsolete", to reduce the many-page list of technologies still not researched. Many chemical drives would seem to go well once nuclear drives are developed.

I picked this game up a few weeks ago when it hit early access, God I love it. But the above is soooo needed. I get about 10 years into this game and my research list is so full of things I'll never research.

Also less drives, engines, and radiators. There are just to many options.