I've played 2 games since the latest update was released. Here are some of my thoughts.
----
Some of the UI got updated. Some of it I approve of.
The UI for shipyards now has mechanisms to move ships in the queue up or down the list, to update a ship in the list to the latest version, and even repeat stuff. However, I tried to update multiple ships in the queue at once and I found that I could not do that. It has to be one at a time.
The UI starbases are a little bit better. You can now request constructors from the starbase screen. This will cut back on the logistical work (and memory) to ensure that you build constructors and send them to correct starbase. It seems that there is a new button on the screen, that for every click will either call an idle constructor to come to the starbase or it will add a constructor to a nearby shipyard for building. The idle constructor or freshly built constructors will find their way to the starbase with no trouble. I did plenty of testing of the latter. However, the former seemed to give me trouble when I tried to build new starbases, as my constructors kept being conscripted. Further more, it seems that a starbase can steal constructors from other starbases. I suspect that when a starbase asks for more constructors, it checks if there are any in the build queue of the closest shipyard, and if true then it redirects them to itself (or something like that). I not sure on specifics quite yet as I quickly got in the habit of not sharing shipyards among starbases (I worried about only 1 starbase per shipyard at a time). Also this steal constructors effect may have added to the trouble of building new starbases as this effect could steal constructors that have no destination in mind (either on the map or while being built). Also... you know what, there is a bunch of stuff that I need to test and verify so I'll just move on.
The AI no longer bugs me every turn asking for peace. I can now expect a lot of peace and quite while I wipe them out.
The AI ship designer now designs carriers it seems. Actually, now there seems to be 2 different carrier module types - each for different type of weapon. Drone interceptors (drone carriers) use lasers, and Fighter Guardians (guardian carrier) use mass drivers. There doesn't appear to be any equivalent for missile weapons yet. The carriers that I've seen use cargo hulls as the base. I'll look into this some more.
The ships seem cheaper as I now can build more ships using less factories on my worlds. Mind you, it also seems that ships have less parts on them as well so that would contribute as well.
I noticed some changes to the planet development screen, but I haven't stopped to study it much.
I saw that something new has been put in place for planet invasion, and I can research more invasion techs.