Impressions ... and questions

Hello,

I finally found the time to install Drox Operative after buying it at GoG a while ago.

I started with a Human ship, which is now about lv 30 ... and I'm stuck and don't really know what went wrong. I can still kill most things, but the ship is severely lacking on the defensive side - one hit from ancient Hezog destroyers take out my shield and 50% of my structure (didn't put any points in structure since I was trying to go shields-only), and I don't survive the next hit.

I've put about 80 points into Command by now; my main stat is Tactical, followed by engineering, computers and enough helm to keep the speed at 200. I have 4 crew on the ship.

Shields: 299 / 299
Armor Plating: 0 / 0
Structure: 107 / 107
Energy: 203 / 203

DPS: 240.4
Attack: 405
Defense: 213

Tactical: 62
Helm: 33
Structural: 8
Engineering: 46
Computers: 29
Command: 80

The question is: What exactly am I doing wrong? In earlier games, I put fewer points in command, but then I found that that ships didn't have enoug slots for modules and crew. Should I have focused more on the stats where Humans get bonuses (tactical, computers), or spread out my points? I had not realized that investing in command also grants some points in Tactical. Or should I try to heavily invest in a single stat to get the bonuses granted at 50/... base points?

I really like the game so far. The concept of the AIs playing a game of Master of Orion against each other that I can (but don't have to) influence in various ways for fun and profit is unique. I love the spectacular explosions.

There are a few minor things that could have been done differently:

1. Space is big. Space isn't the Blue Marble, it's the Pale Blue Dot. In Drox Operative, I can't seem to zoom out far enough to get a good feel of the vastness of space - the larger ships fill a significant portion of the screen - while in combat most of the screen is covered in ships.

2. Mines, the pre-placed ones. You can neither mouse over them to find out whether they're a minor annoyance or will scatter the atoms of your ship throughout the galaxy, nor can you get rid of them in any way but triggering them with your ship.

3. Item icons. It's really hard to figure out for most items which item does what without mousing over them. Exception: Consumables. These icons are very easy to recognize; they're meant to get information to the viewer.
Also, adding more area to the colored frames of the icons is a huge improvement from Din's Curse, where I found it hard to tell an items rarity from the narrow colored frame around its icon. In Drox Operative, the color is easier to see since the frame around the icon has a vignette effect.

Impressions ... and questions