Hey, I finally, just updated my Beta2 to Beta4, and currently am still enjoying a rather, long game (5 hours GAH!)
But one thing that is really really annoying me, Is my inability to help my friendly AI, he calls for help, but I can never tell where he wants help, If I zoom out to get a better view, I can't see his ships because the icons disappear at certain zoom levels

I really do think there should be a mini map, that we can toggle on or off (in game toggle) that show's a mini map (could be some sort of Radar design to stay in line with the game).
And when the AI request's help, it automatically sends a Ping, any pings recieved open the mini map and are shown on the mini map, then mini map then automatically hides away again if the user has the mini map to be hidden.
(Hmm, I think I explained it wrong)

Ill try again...
Ping's that are sent to player's, automatically open up a small mini map of radar or similar design, and the pings are displayed on the mini map for a given time (say 3 seconds should be ample), if the user has the map to be of a hidden toggle, then the map automatically hides away after the ping time elapses (the 3 senconds), if the user has the map toggle to be on open, then the map obviously has no need to automatically hide or show, because's its either meant to be open (so dont hide) or is already shown (Toggle is set to display)
(heh, thats better)

Anyways, all in all I quite enjoy it, its hard at first to get use to the scale of battles, big battles, big maps, tiny ships and structures, but other then the map, and getting use to the scale, I really enjoy it.

Now, If you dont mind im going to try to end this game lol, FINALLY though, A game with heaps of strategics and long battles, that arn't a frustrating stale mate (*cough* AOE *cough*)