Thanks for sharing your progress!
I must admit, I was impatient last week, decompiled your game, and added some modifications by myself. It is quite easy with C# applications, I hope you do not mind.
Mainly, I fixed the clothing bug, nerfed the Colonels to get only the bonus of subordinates, nerfed station boni to 25% (Starport/Headquarter to 50%), and all officer boni to 25%. Furthermore, starting from level 3, relationship increase only requires 3 missions.
I tested it on hard, bonus for industrial stations and relationship level >= 3. I struggled until about week 35, failed the payment once, but had an easy endgame. RNG was a little bit against me because one of the industrial stations had only 2 Captains, both of them friendly. Nevertheless, at the end of the game, it was the most visited station with a level 9 Major and a Colonel (I do not remember the level).
- Station bonus feels balanced now. It does not feel overpowered, but is strong enough that you still prefer missions to industrial stations.
- Officer bonus also felt pretty nice. Even friendly Officers with level 3 are now an interesting choice. Still, it is not overpowered.
- Colonels are great now! They start slightly below your better Majors, but due to the fact that your Majors now level up faster, they quickly build a good subordinate bonus, and soon outperform the most Majors.
- I unlocked the General in week 42 (same week as I reached 1 million), so it didn't had a big impact on the game anymore. But with an initial payment of 9000 (5000 * Stern * 50% Subordinate bonus), it felt quite in place. At that time in the game, you need an average of about 6500 per day, so it definitively is strong enough.
- The high level Majors felt overpowered. The combination of high relationship bonus and good chance to get civilians or even VIP made them a cash cow. Due to the fact that levelling up goes faster, the relationship bonus seems to be too strong.
- Faster relationship increase was fun! I reached the 1 million in week 42, with a level 8 Major, 1 level 5 Captain (friendly), and 5 level 4 Captains (2 of them friendly). I continued until the end, the Major was now level 9, and I had 1 level 6 Captain (friendly) and 8 level 4 Captians (3 of them friendly).
I will nerf the relationship bonus to 1+relationshiplevel and test whether it makes the endgame more interesting.