First I want to congratulate the developement team for this fantastic game
1) In the tech tree there are some aspects that i think are missing, i think a very large thech tree is better caus you always have the sense you are researching somethin the others dont have and increases the tech trade
a) you can have a variety of invasion tactics but i think that the defense tactics are missing, bye example if you get the minisoldier tactic theres no need to get more, you always use the minisoldier tactic. But in a real war there's always counter measures to every invasion tactic, and as well defense tactics with weakness for certain attack tactic.
The close fight would get better that way

the bio engeneering is an important aspect of the technology but in the game is somehow vage. if you research better medicines or bacteries that help healt, even genetic improvements for the people the moral and the soldiering will go up. not mentioning the fact of bacteriological warfare for evil civilizations.
c)the weapons research is a very important point in the game. but it can get better if every tipe of weapon has it's own aspects, instead of making laser I, laser II and laser III, etc. theres an ability tree for laser cause you can research plasma right away after researching laser but the laser technology still have the improvement posibility. like the miniaturization or improving the weapopn rate of fire for beams, the cadency for mass drivers or the damage for missiles. that way you can feel that every weapon has its unique qualities, and weapons like the phasor have more improvements than plasma or disruptors.
2) In the ship design i don't have much to say i think it's great but...
a)making a ship capable of having more than one trade module can help the ravenue that way you can still improve your trade
b)all about ships is more weapons, more defense, more engines but what about the support ships, like if a support ship is in the fleet it improves the fleet range so the others can have a big load of weapons. ships that provide defense or attack bonus only for the fleet, of curse the support modules uses a lot of space in the hull and logistic points but can help in winning a battle, or a different support tipe is decreasing the fire rate of the other ships giving the first strike advantage the has proved to be usefull, and if you dont want to get in battle uses, a bonus in repair it's fair enough
3) the game options
a)the dreadlords can be such a pain but the only way to fight aginst them is selecting the dreadlords on parade, it's better to make the dreadlords an option like the minor races so you can choose the race you want and theoptions you want freely but still have the dreadlords in your game
b)its great to be in the middle of a big war but the tech tree makes a big jump in the weapons sistem so a few attacks and the other guy ships are crushed, in my personal opinion i like the big fleet fights but i like when it last more than a few punches, a very good option in the game can be a max tech limit. like if you set it on low cant go further than plasma beam or mass drivers, research centers, advanced miniaturization, etc but in medium you can have phasors banking center and so.
Well those are my ideas abut some improvements
I like this game cause the updates that make the game better and better
what do you think abut my ideas, any comments and more ideas are very apreciated