I'm really new in the game but liking it a lot so far. I like that combat isn't simply point and click and you actually have to learn distance, ball drop, waves, etc. I like that ships don't have GPS for navigation
However, my suggestions:
Keep the compass in the same place. It is rather confusing having it move from the right side of the screen to the left during battles. I'd think this has been mentioned many times.
The damage indicators for the ships confused me. Perhaps because I hadn't paid attention to them when beginning battles until I was somewhere in the middle of the battle. I couldn't tell if the blue boxes indicated damage or the lack of them. I think because they are blue (like water), I was thinking they had something to do with flooding, so having fewer was better. I finally figured out more is better, so I'd think a standard green (health) color would be better for this. Even a transition from green to red might be more intuitive.