That doesn't seem to happen till you start building Tier 2 ships (though apparently it's not supposed to happen till you have visited Earth)

I'm just at that point on my third run through.. trying desperately not to lose too many colonies before I stem the flow.

My one complaint so far would probably be having some more synergy between the ships. Right now it seems the only way to build a fleet is to use 1 of each type of ship and that the secondary versions work best with the other secondary versions and don't mix well.
It would be nice to be able to mix up the fleets more, but the powers just don't add up if you do..

The ability to get ships and officers quicker would be nice, I could really do with three fleets where I am now but can only just manage to field two...

An absolutely great game though, and the data is all in LUA files so I may take a crack at modding it if I get bored or too annoyed with the way some things work.

Nice!
I knew they were adding a lot of stuff in (the KS stuff) but it's nice to know they are still improving the base experience. Those are all things that I had thought it needed (particularly scrapping rooms, so you can replace old generators with new ones).

I shall look forward to any updates.

No, just the regular portals opening, guarded by mostly Elder version of what I assume are first-tier enemy vessels. I still have the "Upgrade The Fleet" quest active, so I presume the game is waiting on me to finish that.

Excellent! They sound like useful improvements. The idea of repurposing station space makes a lot of sense. For example, one could tear out old reactors and put in the more powerful ones from later generations.

So far the game does not dissapoint!

I have had little time to play so far. I do have a tier 2 fleet and just visited New Terra. The game was pretty easy for the most part, but I guess I had some advantage, because I watched all those Let's Play videos. I think it is still very easy compared to the games it took inspiration from, Ur Quan Masters (Star control 2) and XCOM.
The game slowed down a fair bit. I did the timed missions right away and soon-ish ran out of missions for a brief moment. I think I closed three portals, besides New Terra. If you try to do the urgent stuff, mostly the portals, right away you won't have any stress.
I also have no issue with space, all lvl4 and some lvl 7 rooms explored and plenty of room left. The only additional reactor I built was the biggest one, providing 50 energy, and that is enough so far.

What I find annoying is the resource gathering. I guess I also had bad luck with the distribution of the resource planets, most are far away. It is annoying to move a fleet from planet to planet all the time. A little hint: if you want a resource boost, visit the alien home planets.

Besides the slow down in the number of missions the game is rather nice. This slow down makes me fear that it will end soon and I hope that is not the case. I am building a special lab now, looking foward to it.

Lol, nowhere close. You're only still near the end of Act 1. You do get automated resource collection in Act 2 so don't worry about it.

Heh, it's gonna ramp up very soon. Trust me.

Thanks. It did indeed pick up. I even lost one planet due to a bug that is fixed now (it had ~15 days left).
I played a little further but got stuck in Stardew Valley the last couple of days :)
I think I am very close to the end of act 1 by now. I wonder what will change in act 2.

The game keeps getting better!

I just solved it last week or so but today had an update notification. Some nice quality of life adjustments (you can now see on the main map if a system has been upgraded / automated) AND...

... ship equipment! I think I mentioned in a post previously that I'd love to see equipment added in the sequel - I guess with active devs eager to constantly improve their game you don't always have to wait LOL.

I might fire this up for a spin just to see how it plays out. And if anyone was on the fence about this game - don't be it's great.

Did the faction questlines get beefed up?

I did play the game when it came out, and it was cool but everything about the alien nations felt a little scarce after the first contact and the pirate war. I might give it another dance if the story did get a little boost :)

Actually a little. If you occasionally "pop in" on the faction homeworlds they'll usually give you a quest. They're all pretty funny and while it's a bit "light" story wise there is a bit of an overarching narrative to each questline. And you'll learn a little about the different groups.

Sometimes they'll give you random quests as well, but the "story" type ones require you to stop by. There isn't any notification of a quest (though sometimes they ask you to come by their homeworld) but like I said, if you stop by every now and again they'll give them to you.