Request
You asked for one request but I'm going to give you a few. I'm not familiar with the game engine so I hope that they are reasonable requests.
1. Broadswords should be able to support weapons that can destroy the Kilrathi cap ships. So, for example, instead of supporting 4 torpedo launchers with 6 torps each, make it 4 launchers with 30 torps each. Also, along these lines, you could reduce the speed of torpedos so that they are a little less effective against fighters. This would give the Broadsword a nice niche in the game (and would be great if you every make a multi-player version...) Come to think of it, the Orion could use an upgrade of this type too. Its as manuverable as a bomber...
2. I'd like to see more Confed/Militia ships in the major centers of Potter quadrant. Also, I would like to see paradigms and broadswords flying around Perry all the time. It seems strange to have 20 Kilrathi follow you to Perry and effectively blockade it.
(Okay, so I took a mission that involved spacing one Kilrathi who has 20 wingmen and ran once I collected.... So what, there should still be some Confed presence there. I guess I'd just like to see more ships running around doing their thing in the background.)
3. Try to provide a good (ie. better) financial incentive for being merchant. I heard a suggestion of making certain raw materials available at a discount when they are purchased in blocks of 100. It sounds good to me. Alternatively, give really lucrative merchant missions with large payloads from fixers in the bars... Only available for owners of Draymen, Tarsus, Orion and Galaxy class ships. (I added Orion because as much as you have improved the game, the Orion is still a peice of junk that makes you wonder why you gave up on the Tarsus. Sure it supports great engines and good shields but it gets cut to peices by everything in this game.)
A couple of other miscellaneous suggestions.
No communications when the cloaking device is active.
No targetting computer lock when the cloaking device is active.
Demons are rather uber right now. I would suggest reducing the highest level reactor they support by one. Perhaps change two of their guns to light guns only (or light/medium) only. (At the moment their is little reason to go to a centurion instead of a demon.) I like to think that the centurion should have much better weapons than the demon. Sure it has better missiles but I think that the usefulness of missiles in this game is pretty minimal. In WC2 a missile might take out a dralthi. In the original version of Privateer two missiles would easily destroy a talon. In this game missile mounts are only useful because you can put a tractor beam on them.
The fixes I'm suggesting are really minor annoyances for me. I don't want to sound like I am whining. The work that you have done so far is absolutely fantastic.
Floater