So what was done:
Arcade: The ship presets for Acts 1 & 2 are revamped and now balanced towards finishing the Act, not at starting it; Also the extra life scores are adjusted (to the current score system, which it's still not balanced) in order to be able to get your first extra life after finishing Act 1.
Player > Powershot: I always felt that something is wrong with the quick fire feature of the powershot, but after the 2 week testing in the Arcade mode (where you use it more) I was sure there was something wrong! And indeed, I rewrote most of the powershot functionality and finally is working as intended, including a small leeway that helps to hit the quick fire in the heat of battle.
Player > Auto-fire: While adjusting the ships for the Arcade I've noticed that the auto-fire interval is too long, and most of the faster weapons are firing way too slow, compared to manually clicking the fire button. So the auto-fire timing is adjusted as well, they are still fast weapon which can be fired even faster manually, but this is by design.
Story / Arcade > Background: Added animated transition between act backgrounds and it's synced with the BGM change
Story / Arcade > Next Level: In order to make the boosts that come with the drops to be more valuable to the player were made quite a few changes as well - Overshield now is saved between levels, and if there is an active boost at the end of the level the timer is paused
This was a huge week for The Battle for Vega, so what comes next:
I'm planning a full overhaul of the drops system -- new boosts, new type of smaller drops, loot table, and so on.