Great game, but a few issues i would like to bring up:

[gavicola1]

First:
the frequency discussed ship manager. I actually have no issue with the constraints on the new ship designer. however, i was hoping for a significant improvement in the, lets call it 'ship manager' and in fact, its exactly the same as DWU. Essentially, it only allows me to build one ship of each class with any amount of automation. Let me give a specific example. In the early game, I only have escorts, so most likely i want to build a general purpose combat escort. later in the game, maybe once i've unlocked destroyers, i want to turn escorts into cheap single use platforms. Maybe i want
1) a PD escort that i attach to my fleets as an 'escort' (wow, its like its in the name?) lets call it a PPE
2) an escort with missiles as a fleet missile boat , lets call it a PPG
3) an escort with bombs for planetary attack, lets call it a PPB

The upgrade/ship manager only wants me to have one escort. If i try to build fleet designs, i can tell it to use this particular escort for a particular role, but then if i upgrade the ships, i have to upgrade each fleet design manually.
HOW TO FIX:
Make it so that the ship designer/fleet manager understands that there are different roles and different hulls, and it makes each design unique for each role/class combination and doesnt try to overwrite them. This should be a relatively easy fix for you, and honestly i cant believe it wasn't in DWU, but it should definitely be in DW2. A few roles to get started with : General Purpose, Bombardment, Fire support (ranged attack), Direct fires (close in attack), Escort (point defense).

Second:
The economy screens are way to opaque. This problem is annoying the *&$ out of me and i cannot find any information on it. If needed, i can attach screencaps, but let me try to explain in words. I am mid-game in my first play through. I have a 7 colony empire with what appears to be a very healthy economy. I have a bonus income of ~15k per tick, and i have excess standard income of ~10k tick. I have very little automated, nothing automated related to building anything as far as i can tell. Every tick, my cash reserve increases a bit, up to about ~25k, and then the engine spends a bunch of my cash reserve in an instantaneous jump back down to ~10k. This cycle repeats ad infinitum. I cannot figure out what the AI is spending this cash reserve on. its not allowed to build troops, or ships, or planetary improvements, or diplomatic gifts. Maintenance costs are already accounted for in the ledger, as are any economic drains, material purchases, etc. So could someone please tell me where this cash is going? And since its apparently a constant cash drain, why isn't it appearing as a line in the ledger?
HOW TO FIX:
you really need to rework the economy screens so this sort of thing doesnt happen. if i have positive cash flow, then my cash reserves should increase. If there is a good reason as to why this isn't happening, as in my situation above, then the game should not be telling me i have a positive cash flow. With all the detail in the game, i dont understand why a simple bookeeping page can't have ALL the information in it. For that matter, this is another area where significant improvement should have happened between DW2 and DWU. Why is Bonus income 'bonus' - shouldn't it be added on to the cash flow ledger so at least, at the top level, i can see if i have a net positive income or a net negative income in ONE LINE?

-G