First off, great game.
Secondly, I didnt read every post, after page 19 I skipped ahead, so if its been said before...
An Idea for Phase Jump Inhibitors, of course like so many before, they should probably cover the whole gravwell, even with placement anywhere in the planetary system.
If they could make getting a lock into or out of a system much longer that would be great, with a warning when you were trying to go into a system that had a phase jump inhibitor placed. Something to the effect of "you are phase jumping into a system with a phase jump inhibitor, entering or leaving the system will take significantly longer" Or just "Phase Jump Inhibitor Detected"
that way a person could cancel the phase jump and not enter that system, or if they think they can beat the opposition and destroy the inhibitor they can let the coundtown continue.
phase jumping into or out of such a system armed with the inhibitor should be something you have to think twice about, and it should take more than a full minute or two to get a successful lock to phase jump.
There should be a skill to train that would cut this percentage down, but not eliminate it. Maybe to cut it down by 40-50 percent so that the inhibitors dont become as useless as they are now.
this would also add to some strategy because by you getting that warning you could in effect pretend you have a large fleet there, and scare off some people.
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Planetary defenses should also be beefed up considerably, scouts and small fleets of frigates shouldnt be able to outrun and outlast everything you throw at it. In all other games ive played scouts are fast, but they do get destroyed by base defenses before they can escape, thats what they are there for, they are expendable.
Those gauss guns are freaking huge, they should make even a cap ship spin on its axis when they are hit by one. They should also cover most of the gravwell, scouts shouldnt be able to sneak in and see your whole layout without paying the price for spying.
I can't tell now for sure, but fighters and bombers seem to go the same speed, maybe make the fighters faster, and leave the bombers the same speed they are now.
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Lastly its been said before, Unit caps and taxation rate
The actual size of your fleet should be part of the equation for taxation, if your getting beaten you shouldnt have to pay the same rate as somone else with the same amount of fleet capacity but less ships. Since your focus would be on spending your money to replace those destroyed ships.
But with much larger limits instead of the 2000 you have now.
Example (35 percent base tax rate) for the capacity to support your full fleet, then add a percentage of the actual capacity you have to that number. so if you have a full fleet, all your slots used up, your tax rate is 70 percent. if you have half of your slots used up your tax rate is 52.5 percent. (If anyone knows how tanking in eve works you'll understand what i mean in this example)
This would mean that if your entire fleet gets destroyed, you go back to a 35 percent tax rate, but you stay at that rate even if your down to one planet.