There could at least be some more "gritty" animation than a boring laz0r.  There's a drillbit in the icons - why isn't mining done with some (reasonably noisy but not annoyingly so) grit-spewing drill, with the robot shaking with the effort (like a guy with a jackhammer)

I do sometimes get jealous when I see Thelodica bots with cool laz0rs pewing away or Nuimqol bots with those cool zappy guns; but practically speaking, I loves my missile bots *hugs Waspish*.

I'm sure balance will shift back and forth a bit over time, it always does.  But I intend to eventually fly ... ahem ride ... them all anyway, so no big deal.

Terminal background screen is definitive, therefore ... umm ... yellowey-orange

I can only think back to the fact that another fairly successful MMO, City of Heroes, had collision detection between superheroes who were whizzing about at ultra fast speeds (with ultra-fast PvP in the PvP zones), not just on ground but in the air; some of the missions were in instances with corridors, etc.; and with all that, there were only very occasional problems, not even enough to cause threads on forums about it (I think I saw maybe 2 or 3 complaints about it in the 3 years I played CoX).  Champions Online also has it (free to play, so if you haven't experienced collision detection in an MMO, you can test it out for yourself).  Collision detection is workable in an MMO, the gain in immersion is pretty big (and would be great in this game, where you're supposed to be in a substantial metal object), and I don't think griefing would really be that big of a problem, bearing in mind that the Alpha islands are purely PvE anyway - and one would think that whoever gets to the PvP action on the Beta islands is either going to be sensible or get a very quick lesson in being sensible.

Also, tracking just makes sense - what's the point in WASD steering unless you can strafe and it has some effect?  So ok, you're not targeting directly as in a shooter, so let there be some effect from angular/transverse velocity.

Not implants, Spark upgrades (so they could be destructible).

I must admit I don't like the robot sound of my Castel (that's as far as I've gotten so far).  It has an annoying ultra high frequency dog-whistley whine.  I don't mind the sort of futzed electronic nature of the sound in general, but the ultra high frequency component of the sound really needs to be toned down a lot with EQ (around 10-12khz-ish?), or eliminated altogether. 

And I would like to hear some pitter-patter for the Castel too.  There was a nice bit of quiet pitter-patter on the Arkhe, but the Castel just has the electronic whine only, so far as I can hear.  I'll be disappointed if the Waspish has the same ultra-high-frequency whine, and also lack pitter-patter too.

Minor points, but I should think it wouldn't be too much trouble for the sound people to just quickly review and remake the files, they're probably all set up on sequencers with mixed audio and softsynth components anyway

I love the fixed radar map, using it now, but the "headlights" are a bit to bright and sometimes obscure the background a bit, especially if you're using the passable terrain option.  Maybe dial the headlights down a notch or two (the edges being a bit brighter than the main "beam" is good).

What's quite handy is, if you've gotten rep for all three factions up to a decent level (e.g. via transport missions), then you can get L1 and L2 missions from all 3 Alpha terminals and associated Outposts. 

Now, normally (though not always) it seems that the Bounty Hunting missions for a given faction are against the faction type robots against whom you are weak (e.g. Truhold-Markson Alpha Terminal gives a L1 Bounty Hunting mission against Nuimqol robots).  That's presumably why the Bounty Hunting missions give the greatest NIC rewards out of all the missions - because they're a bit more challenging.

But if you are able to get Bounty Hunting missions from the other factions, that means you can go to one of the other Alpha Terminals (or outposts if you've got enough faction for L2) and do missions against the faction type against whom you are strong (e.g. with my Pelistal robot, I can go to ICS Alpha Terminal and get a Bounty Hunting mission against Thelodica, who are strong to Nuimqol but weak to me, or I can go to Asintec Alpha Terminal and do Search & Destroy missions against Thelodica robots).

What this means is that you can farm Bounty Hunting missions (and associated plasmas and kernels) that take much less time (because you can plow through the mobs relatively quicker).

It makes quite a difference to be fighting against mobs whom you are strong against - you melt through them much more satisfyingly

Of course this also works for just exploring - if you're Pelistal, explore Asintec lands (where there are more Thelodica), if your Nuimqol explore Truhold-Markson areas (where there are more Pelistal) and if you're Thelodica explore ICS areas (where there are more Nuimqol).

Yeah all I can see there is Hotspot Shield too.  What gives?

Story is always good.  Probably most people who play this game (as with EVE) are into PvP and interpersonal relationships.  But some people enjoy games like these more for immersion - the immersion of being a space pilot in the vastness of space, the immersion of being on an alien world in a strange situation.

As far as the devs are concerned, I should imagine that while their priority is the first type of player, they do spare some thoughts for us immersioneers and roleplayers too - after all, our money's as good as anyone else's.

I think it's understandable that the devs will focus on getting the PvP and the sandbox right as first priority, but I'm sure they will gradually flesh out the PvE side of the game as time goes on too.  CCP did it, and eventually did make some pretty engaging wee storylines (the Epics, Cosmos, etc.), I'm sure Avatar Creations will get round to it too.

Story stuff is part of the "sand" in a sandbox game, it's like a basic skeleton or a framework on which players create what they create.