Thanks for playing and the detailed review. Appreciate it! I'd like to clarify a few things and also explain what is planned or still in development.
Every module has three tiers, and higher tiers unlock by using that module. Once a tier is unlocked it can appear in wave rewards or the shop. Higher tiers appear less often and cost more because they are stronger. Although the drop chances and prices/values are subject to change (especially the Tier 3 modules are way overpriced currently). There is a screen that shows all unlocked modules (player stats available by tapping the player name in the main menu), but it does not currently explain the unlock triggers. I may improve the clarity there.
About weapon balance: The game uses a damage type system where kinetic, energy and explosive damage interact in a rock-paper-scissor way with hull, armor and shields. Some combinations do 150 percent damage and some only 50 percent. That can make certain weapons look weak if they are hitting the wrong layer. Some layers are currently underrepresented, which makes some weapons feel over/underpowered. That should change with more enemy variety. More varied wave compositions and enemy loadouts will follow. I'm currently keeping it more or less consistent to have some predictibility and being able to balance out that base run before adding more variety, which will lead to a less obvious meta and increase the strategic potential of different builds.
Missiles explode early when intercepted by Point Defense. That applies to both player and enemy missiles. The final enemy wave uses 2x tier 2 missile launchers. That's intentionally very hard but they are as strong as if you use 2x tier 2 missile launchers. There is no difference there. More or better PD can help to take out more missiles before they hit and shields can help eat up the explosive damage from missiles as explosive damage only deal 50% of their damage against shields. Plus the shields may recharge before the next barrage hits as long as they are not fully depleated.
Losing a ship early is supposed to be painful as all invested resources are gone, but I agree, it currently feels too punishing. I am looking into comeback mechanics so a run is not decided immediately when one ship goes down.
Regarding positioning and AI: Enemies and friendly ships use the exact same targeting rules. They both attack the closest valid target, and if that target is already being attacked they look for the next closest one. I looked into weapon-specific targeting priorities but that's too much micromanagement. Don't want to add that layer of complexity. There are other ideas, that I'm exploring to allow for some control but that's not decided yet. However, you can already assign ship behavior like staying in formation or advancing to the range of their longest or shortest weapon (right-most option in the fleet panel). This also avoids being taken out by a out of range enemy ship, as your ships would close in until they are in fire range. So long-range enemies are dangerous only if the ship commands to close the distance are not set.
Putting all defense on one ship and using it as a forward tank is a valid strategy but is risky as losing a ship is punished hard. So maybe spreading ships in a line is actually safer because it distributes damage better as enemies will attack different ships depending on their position. That is where positioning becomes important.
About crits and DPS math. Crits might need some number tuning, but balance in general will get a full pass once all core features are in. Every new feature shifts the numbers again, so while trying to maintain a reasonable balance, a deeper tuning will follow.
VFX is mostly final and reflects the best I can do within my skill range and budget. I get decent feedback in general and rather focus on gameplay and balance than looks. I know its not top-notch but yea, that's how it is. I will improve here and there of course but mainly it's set.
Hope this clarified some things and gave a good picture of the current state and an outlook on where I'm trying to go.
Thanks again for playing and taking the time to give detailed feedback. Keep an eye on updates!