So... I've played around with the DA beta a good bit now, and I thought I'd share my current thoughts about it:

Spies:
It's going to take a lot of work to get them balanced right, but it's definitely going to be worth it. However, I do have questions/comments about them:

1. You can disable Trade Goods. That's great, but does this remove the bonus from all Civ's currently benefiting from them? If not, it definitely should

2. Any particular reason we can't disable their space ports? Would certainly be the best way to disable their army

3. Do you have to keep agents on planets to retain the espionage level up? For that matter, there doesn't seem to be any pop-ups or other notifications for when your espionage level raises.

4. Maybe there should be a slight chance each turn that an active agent might be automatically nullified/comprised without the expenditure of an agent on the part of the defending Civ (maybe even having the agent get out in the nick of time and returning to its own Civ). Not really sure what it should be based on (their Espionage score? The spending they are spending towards Espionage?).

5. How does a higher Espionage percent score help with Espionage as it is now?

6. It would be nice if Agents could do something to disable/hinder Starbases, Asteroid Mines, and ships as well

Perhaps... an agent on a ship reduces its speed to 1 (or halves/reduces by 25%) and reduces its attack/defense by 10-25%. On a Starbase, it reduces its attack/defense as a ship, but also halves any bonuses they are granting (influence, production/research, ship assist or otherwise). On an Asteroid field, it would work just like placing one on an improvement does currently.

Special Worlds:
1. The cost techs for these probably should scale with the number of habitable worlds in a galaxy. In a rare habitable world galaxy, it might not ever be worth researching these techs if there might only be 1 or 2 planets in the entire galaxy with that type... also, the AI values them a bit too much as well.

2. Maybe there should be another slider on the game setup screen that sets what percentage of habitable planets in the galaxy would be of these types. (Something like... none, few, half, most, all...)

3. Does the production penalty apply to worlds you conquer? For that matter, can you invade planets without having the tech to colonize it? What does the production penalty apply to? Just Industry Production? Or does it apply to any of the following too: research, taxes, pop growth, influence? I'm guessing maybe research, but not the others.

4. All the special planets have a little icon near them that indicates their type... this makes them pretty easy to spot (assuming you can remember what each of the icons mean ). Planets that are habitable by all should probably have their own icon like this too. It would certainly make it easier to spot them amongst all the uninhabitable planets.

Asteroid Fields:
1. There are only Industrial mines? Shame, I was hoping (and it seemed to be implied by all the previews they were more like galactic resources that only applied to one planet (ie: when you found them, they have a specific type of bonus (whether it be Industry, Research, Morale, Pop Growth (got those from the xml files ), Influence or otherwise) they provided when you built a mine on them). Hopefully this isn't final though

They certainly do change the game as is though, in a good way. Even a low class planet near a bunch of them can become an industrial power house

2. The bonus loss from distance seems to be too steep at the moment. I'd say that planets within the same solar system as the asteroid field should gain the full benefit from at least the Basic and Intermediate modules. Maybe even all of them...

3. Since they are such a big advantage, all starting solar systems for each Civ probably should start out with some (if not the same amount as any other Civ)... it can be hard to build up a planet initially with only basic factories...

4. While I like the fact that you don't need to build a million space trucks to build them up (unlike constructors and starbases!)... I honestly have to question if it is even necessary to have the Mining Module... why can't constructors just be changed to perform the function? It's not like the mines need any ships to move the mined material back

5. On the same note as 5... maybe Constructors should be changed to work like Space Trucks in that they aren't expended (but more expensive to build initially)? Would certainly cut down on the amount of micromanagement necessary currently.

Super Abilities:

1. I'm worried about the super abilities that can actually be negated. Like, the Korx and their trading or the Iconians ability to inhabit certain worlds.

Other notes:

1. There should be a way to end a Economic or Research Treaty other than declaring war/wipe out the Civ. This is especially true if you can only form one of them. Preferably from the trading screen so that you can ask a Civ to break a Treaty to form it with you instead (or the AI doing the same with the player). Of course, the trick is, I suppose, getting the AI to be able to manage them effectively...

Still, in my current game, I was able to get all the major and minor races to form both Treaties to me. The treaties alone provided me half of my income, and with basically no chance to break it either (I'm friendly with most races, neutral with the others).

2. On the same note as 1, there should be a way to end the trading of a certain Trade Good to a civilization, again, preferably from the Trading Screen.

3. Have you thought about having a Influence Treaty? Something like... the recipient gains a certain percentage of the giving party's votes in UP issues...

4. Have you thought of having an Economic victory condition? Like... collecting a reserve of so much bc that you effectively corner the intergalactic market. The amount could be reduced based on how many Trade Goods you have under your control.

5. The mega events sound fun and dandy (I haven't ran into one just yet...), but there really needs to be more normal, non-ethical events. A few suggestions: A new galactic resource is discovered. A current galactic resource runs out... an AI rebellion (that was one of the coolest things about Sword of the Stars), riots break out on planets with low approval, destroying an improvement/stopping production, etc.

6. A slider on the game setup to determine the rarity of said events (and ethical events) in the game. I like randomness in these types of games, it makes it more interesting

7. A slider for how many galactic resources there in the galaxy. Really, this just seems like it should have been there in the beginning, but now it fits even more given the Asteroid fields have their own slider.

8. The ability to have more than 8 minor races (both in game and in terms of the XML files). These guys are a lot of fun, I want a whole bunch of them in my games. (BTW: Good job on adding the slider to set the number of minor races in the galaxy. Best thing you added so far )

9. On the note of Minor races, there NEEDS to be a way to end an Alliance with them.

10. There should be a way to ask a Major Race to break an alliance with one of their allies (well, other than maybe asking them to declare war on them, but I'm not sure if you even can, at least, I never tried).

11. The fact that you added a property for Techs to make them untradeable deserves a big thumbs up Of course, the question now is, does this stop them from being stolen?

12. The value of techs to an AI really needs to scale according to the AI's situation. For instance, the range techs are currently worthless to the Thalians because they already have infinte range... the colonization techs shouldn't mean anything mid to late game, if all the worlds are colonized (unless, of course, you can't invade/conquer planets without the right techs?) or if the AI isn't aware of any planets of the type in its vicinity.

13. And, as a final note... the more modding capabilities are added, the better. Say for instance... the remove of certain hardcoded restrictions/abilities (like the ability for a improvement to build ships) or having the new streamlined tech interface be able to properly display techs with multiple tech requirements

Well... those are my comments for now, but I'm sure I'll have more as the beta evolves. Sorry for the long post and good job so far!