1. I need to know what my colonies are doing. I have many colonies and I feel like I'm playing Fable here, where I have to check each house/ planet manually to see what they are doing. do like how the game tells you what kind of planet it is. I am not sure if this based on what improvements you make on the planet, or if its telling you what it would be best for. If its the game that tells you, keep it that way, its a good way to optimize your upgrades on the planet.
2. I don't know how to interact with anyone you find on the planets. In this specific case. I found a pirate on one of the planets but even after I did a survey, or colonized the planet I still didn't see any event pop up.
3. Speaking on events, where are they?
4. I was able to communicate with another alien species, because I clicked on their portrait. I learned of others through this alien race, but I didn't know how I was able to communicate with this species, and what distance I needed to be to "talk" with them. If you look at my map all you see is my borders, that's it.
5. Why, oh why do they keep focusing on the Sol system after every turn, it was driving me nuts.
6. I boarded that probe early in the game. After that I went on my own colonizing and no other "missions" ever popped up. I tried boarding that probe again, but nothing.
7. Its not very clear what line of research does what.
8. I like that your ships get retrofitted with all the latest upgrades. THANK YOU!