Yeah, this looked good in the beginning but it hasn't progressed much so far. OK, I understand, it's an alpha version, so I don't complain much about the money spent. If you buy into something under development that's still vastly experimental you have to take into account that it might not be a smooth ride at all. Expect things being removed, changed and else over the course of time.
But UAD seems to be developed largely on a trial and error basis, however, bug reports - the whole point of an early access alpha - seem to be ignored on an even grander scale and I also fail to recognize the repeatedly announced improvements, particularly when it comes to AI and the formation system. I can also understand that the current focus of the devs lies with the long overdue campaign but that shouldn't lead to total neglect in other areas.
Just one example: since the 0.5 core patch the NA section is an utterly broken deterrent, and eventually a source of massive frustration, for any new player who tries to learn the game. Range for all designs is locked at maximum, which even in very basic missions makes it almost impossible to build a useable, aka 'realistic' ship. Like in 'Speed Basics 2' - truly an introductory mission of kind - where you have to design a CL of 1910's tech level that can outrun and gun down an escaping 28 kts(!) DD. The problem is just that your hull with the basic propulsion machinery and the fuel supplies for the ridiculously long but fixed range almost consumes your entire displacement before even adding any superstructure or guns. But 1910's tech level also doesn't give much access to weight-saving upgrades. So you have to build a truly and completely unrealistic glass cannon of a CL that's just able to keep up with the DD and hope you can sink it with a few lucky shots because you just lug around all that coal for thousands of miles taking away all meaningful equipment options by its sheer weight. Realism, my ***!
After that I quit (re-)playing any of the NA missions because that fixed maximum range now seems to be set for any of them. Just imagine what it would feel like for a new player experiencing this, worst advertising possible. Instead we get all these gimmicky and nonsensical things like 'Gas Turbines' and 'Stealthy Ships' mentioned above that don't improve the gameplay much if at all, while core issues such as the still god awful AI and formation system flaws remain effectively unadressed. And it also doesn't instill a sense of confidence if some newly introduced features, like the saving of custom designs, get immediately broken again by the next update.
This constant cycle of new features being broken over and over again, just to be set straight by one 'hotfix' after another, that in turn often break previously existing and working features, gives the impression of some poorly developed spaghetti coding that the original developers themselves have somewhat lost track of and, worst of all, don't really seem to care about any longer. Thus I won't commit myself to engage in a tryout of the campaign as it may also get easily wiped by just another change to the code without notice.
I still fire up UAD every now and then for some fun type custom battle but I've definitely lost my faith in the devs' commitment to make this more than the experimental mess it actually is at the very moment. And for that seemingly poor level of engagement from the devs' side the early access price tag was also more than a bit steep. But here I can only blame myself for being a bit too naive...