My first impressions are good, for an alpha i'm seeing a robust system in place with few 'game stoppers' so far. 

   Some of the things i've noticed so far i'm also seeing in other posts, such as the 'invisible ship' bug, i thought i had found a UI bug when i would hit the Sentry button but the Idle Ship identifier would still appear, turns out the ships could see the enemy even if i couldn't.

   One of the things i would very much like to see, getting to the point of this post, is a way to filter the ship list on the right side of the screen to show, for example, only Idle ships, or only Stationed ships. Perhaps a way to show a hierarchy that details which ships are in fleets? I'm sure you guys have something like that coming. Another thing i would like is a way to identity which technologies are required to 'unlock' a ship. the tech tree isn't complete and i've read in post that a more manageable tree with a better sense of what leads to what is coming in the next few updates, but adding something like that to the manufacturing side to show what's required for say a capital ship or corvette would allow us to focus our efforts towards specific goals. I've looked but nobody, so far, has gone to the trouble of compiling a list of requirements for the 20 or so available models in the alpha. perhaps that might be my chore for tonight...

   Loved the first two games, played them WAY too much than was probably good for me, but such is life when you find something fun to spend your time on. sheesh, i need a girlfriend.

   Keep up the good work guys!