i got GalCiv3 recently and i played for about 20h im really enjoying the game and i like how it is shaping up... here some feedback

Ideology perks: These perks doesnt look that balanced, some lines are pretty good while Others seem to be kinda week, for example the research tree doesnt offer much at all, 250 research at 1 and 3 and 500 research + low % doesnt seem that good... 250 research is nothing, considering the research cost of various techs, 250 for the first may be ok as the very first techs dont cost that much but the bonuses at 3 and at 5 are (so later in the game) are kinda a joke. On the other side we have the malevolent tree giving huge production bonuses, with perks that are really powerfull and scale well into mid to late game.

The research tree is just an example of perks that doesnt offer that much and doesnt scale at all into the lategame especially with perks higher than the first. i will like to see another balance pass here, so that all the high level perks will have a better scaling and a nice impact in the game.

another problem i saw is that thers not much benefit to fully embrace a certain ideology

for this reason i will like to see some sort of ideology capstone so if i get all the techs of a certain ideology i get some huge bonus, this way there will be more incentive to fully embrace a single ideology rather than to just get the good one from all of them. (maybe the capstone can be in effect only if you have not purchased a certain amount of perks from other ideologies)

it will also be nice to have some cost adjustments based on how much you are into an ideology to make dabbling harder... so more i spend into an ideology and easier is for me to get to the higher level perks and on the opposite it will be harder for me to purchase perks from other ideologies. (maybe is a bit late for something this complex, but overall i will like to see some system to make dabbling into ideologies harder)

Planet UI: i found the planet ui a bit confusing and bland. especially in the beginning it was for me a bit problematic to see what building was being upgraded and what was built ex novo as, when you upgrade a building (even automatically) the building on the map get replaced by the color coded placeholder of the upgraded building. this made a bit difficult to see what i really had on the planet... yes after a bit when you know the shape of all the buildings is not a big issue () but for a new player is very confusing imo as you dont know what is being built or upgraded. Personally i will like a system more similar to gal civ2 where you still see the original building and thers some indicator on top of it that show the building is scheduled for upgrading.

also as said i found the planetary map a bit bland as it is pretty much the same as galciv2... i will like to see it a bit more appealing. maybe with some planetary vision or 3d models rather than the icons...

Weapons: atm thers not much difference between weapons, i know they are going to get another pass, so here what i will like to see.

first it will be nice to have different stats than just damage... range and rate of fire are other big parameter for weapons (and it should also show them in the designer window).

i will also like to see different weapons types/roles in the same weapon category so players can chose different kind of laser or missiles depending by their taste or playstyle, here an example

Lasters: Beam (high range, medium rof, medium dmg) - Pulse (low range, highest rof, low dmg)

Missiles: Missile (highest range, low to medium rof, medium dmg) - Torpedo (low to medium range, low rof, high dmg, maybe aoe?)

Kinetic: Cannon (medium to high range, lowest row, huge dmg) - Machinegun (low range, high rof, mid dmg)

i will also like to see some weapon mounting options (like in space empires V) where, for bigger ship, you get the option to fit a weapon using more mass for bigger damge/range. this may come with a different graphic for the weapon (but is not strictly necessary) so maybe we can have turret guns for big ship vs the single "gun version" for smaller ships (that doesnt look that good on big ships ). 2 big benefits... bigger ships will be more cool/powerfull, and it will be waaaaaay better to refit them when we discover a new weapon, as we will have not to fit 2000000000 small guns anymore (especially if we want them to look good rather than randomly put weapons on them)

Diplomacy/Treaties: I know is still in the works, but i will like to to be able to ask to an opponent a treaty we have researched... as i understand atm when i research a treaty i can use it just to make other civilizations better in Exchange for something. i will like to be able to ask to other civilizations for treaties that i did research if i value that boost to my civilization.

eg i have researched cultural treaty so now i can use it to boost my own influence asking for it to my opponents in Exchange for something (or we can just trade the same treaty)

Battle viewer: atm doesnt add that much (probably the battles are also too fast) but it will be nice to have it a bit more dramatic, with the camera moving around and focusing on the action. something like Star Wars: Empire at War will be awesome.

Stability: So far i get a few crashes (especially near the start) but overall the game is stable. (i only played mid size galaxies so far)

Bugs: the shipyard and designer window are listing the same ship over and over, kinda like as the ship template got duplicated many times and is not deleted when the ship is upgraded eg in a game i had 11 avatar M0 and 1 avatar M6 listed in the shipyard/designer window... and this for every ship.... also the "user filter" still show the pregenerated ships and not just the ones i create.

in the UP window i cant see what is my % of votes (also i liked the old GalCiv2 pie )

some tooltips cut the text and are hard to read (i play in windowed mode)

sorry for the long post and the terrible english