Okay, this was incredibly engaging for me. I loved it when I figured out that torpedoes are the shortcut to fortune.. especially when they ricocheted. It made me feel like there was a lot to figure out and systematically abuse. Then, after mining a ton of level 4 asteroids it was satisfying to see a huge black void on the map where my recent exploits had taken place; reminded me of the Bootes Void in a good way. I think the balancing was done well enough to keep things going and the alternate ships had some nice features to them.
I might be biased because I love games like FTL and Sunless Sea but this really sucked me in!