[Phoenix-D]

1. Is..not that big of a deal, personally. YMMV, but I think its unlikely to change.

2. This can be modded. (or bugged- there's one amusing shot where a ship covers half the system map..). The flags themselves I don't care for but the rest of the icons are handy.

3. They do that because they grouped in SE4, which made them Very Easy Targets. So SE5 went the other way. It'd definitely be nice if they automatically made mini task forces though. Bays do make a difference in the number that can be launched, but as of the demo they're a bit bugged.

As for sats- you can position them manually using the Sector view screen, if you like.

4. Yes.

5. Its long, but I think the sub-options not displaying until you selected that option would help with most of that

6. MIA. Can always do a Proportions-style homeworld, though.

7. See 6.

8. No AOE unless you count sun-killers. There's a difference between the weapons at low levels, not so much at high by default.

In SEIV there was a marked difference in the performance of the weapons, and that was just +to hit bonuses, damage, reload, and a few special damage types. SEV has a lot more potential that way.