Hello,

Just got the Beta through Steam and played a game as the Altarians with a single standard-level AI Drengin.  Here's some notes I jotted down as I played through.

• Cancellation of purchase of planetary improvements should return currency (it is still credits right?  I miss the BC) but does not.  Decommission of ships should do so as well
• Tech Tree -> Shield Optimization -> Low Cost only reduces cost 1%.  The other defenses are reduced 10%.  Not sure if this is a bug
• Some Tech Tree options are "Disabled for Alpha", but this is Beta... not sure if I should bother researching them or not.  They do clog up the research screen if left unresearched
• "Confirm Battle" should center on the battling ships/fleets, especially if not initiated by the player.  On the large map I played I spent far too long trying to figure out if I lost or won a battle and if anything needed to be replaced or defended better
• There should be an alert if a planet is lost due to invasion or cultural assimilation.
• On some planets after acquiring the "Soil Enhancement" improvement, the option to "build" it is available even if there are no improvable tiles.  On these planets the "Terraforming" improvement works fine however
• Sometimes a planet will not build improvements if it has a project (such as Economic Stimulus) in the queue
• When an opponent is defeated their ships and shipyards remain but are not destroyable or comandeer-able.
• It would be helpful to have a way to know how many ships can be in orbit around a planet, starbase, or shipyard
• It would be helpful to know how much the next starbase would cost and how many free starbases remain to be built.
• The AI does not seem to use starbases to extend their range
• The AI does not attempt to invade or attack planets with even a single non-combat ship in orbit.  This severely lowers my motivation to keep testing because it is impossible to lose once realizing this.

I also played a couple games most of the way through as the Iridium Corporation with Genius level Drengin and Godlike Terran and Altarian. It was a free-for-all.  I didn't take notes so these are from memory

• Combination of Iridium's racial influence and influence/wealth buildings with influence of Benevolent Ideology seems to be extremely unbalanced and should be nerfed.
• The upgrade of Iridium Center to Iridium World removes the Center's Influence bonus.  Not sure if intended but it was an unpleasant surprise.  As a side, it should be possible to stop improvements from auto-upgrading
• In one particular late-game - large map, 1100+ turns - the game would not advance to the next turn. It could be just a lot of moves to compute but I have a fairly decent gaming rig so it seems unlikely that it should take 2+ minutes.  At that point I saved and started a new game. Save file for analysis.
• I could be looking in the wrong places but Economic Starbases don't seem to affect either Research or Production outputs, only Wealth.
• Adding late-game improvements to the Research or Production Economic Starbase modules seems to remove the earlier ones.  Not sure if bug
• It would be cool if Mining Starbases added a minor production, research, or wealth bonus if in range of a planet and mining - depending on what it is mining.  IE, Elerium -> Research, Anti-Matter -> Production, etc
• It would be cool to have a Starbase Module solely to extend range of ships more than a non-specialized Starbase.  Also a module to extend the range of Starbase Effect would be nice
• It is unclear whether the Culture Starbase needs to have a planet in it's range of effect to produce Influence, or if it even works at all
• It would be nice if I could add/remove ship parts without having to actually place them in the designer.  This was doable in GalCiv2.  As an aside, the new ship designer seems a lot less intuitive than the one in GalCiv2
• Some base Huge Hull ships would be nice.  I don't want to craft a whole ship unless I'm really, really bored
• It should be possible to decommission orphaned shipyards
• I love the new economy wheel, however, I miss taxes.  Perhaps taxes can affect the total production points rather than income in the new formulas?
• Buying a ship should produce it instantly instead of next turn.  If there is a fleet blockading all my planets it becomes impossible to build even a single ship to try to fight them off.  As an alternative, perhaps an option to create a shipyard as a planetary improvement?
• Free Market improvement should be upgradable after researching appropriate trees rather than just unlocking the generic Consulate and Market Centers.  Additionally, after researching influence tree, the Consulate improvement tree is still unavailable as is the Market Center.  World bank, however, is available.
• The global production improvement (can't remember if it's Anti-Matter or Quantum Power Plant) is sometimes unavailable after researching the appropriate technology as Iridium.
• Planets should have an checkbox option to remain idle or have a project remain in effect after switching ownership.  It was annoying to keep having to set a project on a planet that I kept assimilating through culture only to be invaded again every couple turns.
• Planetery Defense improvements seem to have no effect for any race other than Drengin, in which case I only ever needed to have two transports in a fleet to achieve victory.
• As Iridium, the Colonial Hospital improvement (and its upgrades) always lists a huge number of turns (in the millions) to complete but finishes in a normal amount of turns

That's it for now.  I'll update this thread as I play more.  I'd just like to add that I'm eagerly anticipating other victory conditions, as conquest is my least favorite playstyle.  And, like everyone, I can't wait for the fleet battle viewer.  Or even the little laser/missile/bullet animation from GalCiv2 with fleet combat viewer disabled.