Background: I played Gal Civ III in Alpha, then only briefly in early Beta. So its been a while since I've seen what you are doing.
Player Notes: Generally hate war, builder type player. Focuses on function over form.
A few points of praise
1) I finally understand how Approval, Growth, and Food work....which I never really understood in Gal Civ 2.
2) I really like the central starport concept, much more elegant than building at every planet.
3) There is finally a starbase module that lets me increase their range. Horray!
General Game Improvements
1) Life support and engine modules look very similar in the designer.
2) Would be nice if the escape key could take you out of the Designer.
3) In Gal Civ 2, clicking on a star would show you the number of habitable planets. I really miss this feature.
4) Ideology Screen. I find it hard to tell what I have actually selected, and the word "unlock" unintuitive. I had used the screen 3 times before I realized I had never actually selected any ideologies!
5) I would like to be able to rush multiple times in the same planet. Even if it still only activates 1 rush per turn, I hate having to revisit the same planet again and again to rush things.
6) Starport: Would be nice to see the ship's size when I am selecting ships. Also, I would like to see the current mass used / total mass as a stat, so I can tell if my ships have new mass free for more things.
7) Would be nice when founding a colony to be able to place the main colony myself. Barring that, provide some logic so it tries to settle in the middle of several tiles. I hate getting a colony out in the middle of nowhere and lose out on those adjacency bonuses.
8) Diplomacy: I would like the ability to fold up the sections and then "lock them" so they stay folded. So for example, I fold up the colony area (because I rarely trade colonies) and then keep it locked when I start a new negotiation.
9) Diplomacy: Add a "finalize" button that automatically adds in enough credits to make the deal go through.
10) Diplomacy: Make it easier to remove credits offered, instead of having to change the number to 0.
11) The color shading of Dregin ships is VERY similar to the Iridians. I have mistaken their fleets several times in gameplay.
12) For growth, don't round the numbers. Growth numbers are slight (generally .1 to .2), so I always see those numbers regardless of my percentage bonuses. Give me some more decimals so I can see what the growth bonuses are actually doing.
13) Thulium resources look very similar to a dead planet.
14) AI: Has the same problem as Gal Civ 2...loves to colonize my nearest planet, which basically gives me a free planet (hard to beat a homeworld's influence).
15) In general I think Approval is too weak right now, its just not influential enough to warrant a focus on it.
16) I miss the button in Gal Civ 2 that could let me quick shift my production from social to military spending.
Bugs
1) The Humans free structure upon colonization. If I build a building, and then immediately build a second building, it will changed the free rushed to the second building, I believe it should stay with the first building.
2) Yor: Population caps do not seem to work properly on the Yor. I got a 50 pop homeworld.
3) I don't see starbase bonuses reflected in the resource summary of a planet. The total looks right, but the percentage isn't highlighted.