Hows the game now?

[RaptorSolutions]

Is it mechanics complete as in all or most of the expected mechanics are in? Although I did note that carriers are on the roadmap, so I guess that should be a big thing that isn't in yet. And also something about salvaging, though I don't know how much I care about that one.
Reading through some of the posts, it seems that it's somewhat grindy, how bad is it? Can I save edit to bypass it?
Anything I should know about? It is pricier than I would like for an impulse buy atm.

Also can we expect an equivalent or higher discount when the next major update drops? I'm surprised it's discounted now when generally discounts should coincide with a major content drop, and looking at some of the new ships, those are very sexy. Which does bring up a thought, is there somewhere where I can see what ships we have currently? Mainly interested in what we can actually fly. And well, what little I've seen looking around, the current frigates just don't look as good as what's coming soon.

Oh, and how does ship combat work? For reference I've played starpoint gemini and X3/X4.

[Girthquake]

As an X4 player, and i love that game, I've found the combat satisfying. The size ships play very differently which is awesome.

Fighters are the closest thing to X4, but I haven't found myself boosting then turning backwards while continuing in the direction i was going as much as in X4. There's a lot more diversity in the builds in X4 also. Note that this game functions fine without that diversity because it's more choosing missions from you headquarters kind of feel more than just free open world - which you can do also, sort of. You can get into the areas that the missions take place in and there are things to do - you don't have to take a mission to just deploy and fly around.

Despite the lack of diversity in the weapons, what you do get has been fun to use for me. This game is very good at being able to pop in and do a few missions even if i dont have a lot of free time - and relatively easy to exit to desktop and get back to what you need to do.

There's an update coming so this could change, but if you like X4 it's close to that - no so fixated perfect simulation like elite dangerous, rather its easier to have fun with with less expertise, if that makes sense.