I upgraded my broadsides gun to the long-range style with a bonus to shield damage (but still 100% on armor) and I swapped my booster for the low acceleration + long duration style. Afterwards, mining and combat and controls and UI all made more sense and I had a lot of success. Apparently the secret is to get frustrated with the game and then take a nap. Things finally clicked for me in a late-night play session yesterday. It's an interesting balance trying to time massive broadsides with incoming missile salvos and getting the deflector up to absorb the most impacts. I enjoy being a bit reckless with how much damage I take and try to maximize my deflector use to get me through. I'll line up one, waiting for the indicator to turn yellow and then I can often get a couple more off that still hit despite not being yellow.

I also realized you typically aren't penalized that much for just snapping them off quickly.

The AI does a reasonable enough job keeping fighters off me and the broadsides do a ton of damage. Obviously, some of the bounties/mission rewards are bigger, but it'd be good if there was a significant motivator to going after ships that outclass you outside of missions. I'm also not seeing bigger ships consistently dropping higher value stuff. There's a balance between upgrading your current ship or buying the next one up and then having more slots to equip. I'm still finding the progression system interesting. I was under the impression there would be more of these types of drops as well, fitting the more ARPG type of style the devs have mentioned wanting to have. Definitely the more valuable of stuff I've been able to salvage. I didn't even notice the first one, but when you're in the equipment bay, they'll show up under 'surplus' and then you can decide to equip or sell. I've seen a couple equipment pieces drop. Haven't watched any playthroughs so I thought I'd just ask here since a few of you have got a few hours in now. So is there actual randomized gear or is it a fixed progression? I was under the assumption that given the developers involved there would be randomized drops. I very rarely need to bother with broadsides since the turrets are wrecking things so fast, combined with the habit of enemy capitals to try to boost away from you meaning that by the time you need the broadside you aren't in range to land multiple hits. Using a similar layout to Ravebomb, 2 pulse cannons but I have them on the sides, with 2 beam weapons on the top since they can be used on targets on both sides of the ship more easily and are more useful against capitals than the pulse turrets are. This has made me start to focus more on removing the smaller targets from fights earlier (AoW tactics anyone?!) to allow me to then focus on the capitals, a combo of just focus fire on bombers to remove the missiles first, then gunboats and lancers, and kiting them if needed since the fighters can easily be dragged away from the capital ships. It might be down to the slow rate of fire on the capitals making it easier to regen shields and rotate in active shields. I kinda get the feeling that the fighters/bombers/gunboats are actually more dangerous than the capital ships, especially when you are distracted by the capital ship and don't pay attention to them.

Rebel galaxy flak cannons