When you have a very large empire and you need to switch around and select a lot of fleets, the fact that each of these things requires 1+ extra clicks, adds up to many many clicks per turn. This makes me feel like I'm fighting the UI more than I'm fighting the enemy when engaging in multi-system combat.

1. Fleets List screen does not select the chosen fleet

When selecting a fleet from the Military Status -> Fleets List screen, that fleet is centered on the screen, but not selected, and the camera zoom level is not changed.

Problems caused

If you have your camera zoomed far out, and then you need to zoom in to select the fleet you centered on, the camera zooms on where your cursor is, not on the fleet (that isn't selected). So you can end up zoomed in on a completely different area and have no idea where the fleet is. So you have to set your zoom level properly, go back to the Fleets List, reclick on the fleet, then manually select it by clicking it in the center of your screen.

Proposed solution

Actually SELECT the fleet when you double click it from the fleets menu..............

2. Selection reticle is hard to see

When zoomed out it's very difficult to see where a selected ship is located. Even when zoomed in close, the selection reticle is not very bright / doesn't stand out. This is especially noticeable when using the "Select next idle fleet" button, which does both select the idle fleet AND center the camera on it, but if you are zoomed out too far the selection reticle is not visible, or if there is a lot of stuff going on in the area you can't tell which ship you actually selected.

Problems caused

I can't find which ship I have selected. More unnecessary zooming and clicking, or re-cycling through the list of idle fleets.

Proposed solution

Make the selection reticle brighter. It should stand out in a different color than the gray-blue which matches the background / wireframes / planet selection circles. I recommend a brighter orange or green color, or perhaps allow the player to select from a few different colors in the options?

It should also be visible REGARDLESS OF ZOOM LEVEL (perhaps up to the 2nd furthest zoom level, it seems that the absolute furthest zoom is designed for pictorial beauty and shows no information whatsoever - that's OK). That means that even if I zoom out all the way on the galaxy, there should still be visible a small selection circle showing me what I have clicked on. It should never be smaller than 1cm in diameter. Right now if I zoom out to this 2nd-max zoom level I can clearly see the quest indicator for some random "found a colony on X" quest  (that I'm not going to do) blinking, but not my selection circle (that I use multiple times per turn).

3. Forming a fleet from a hangar

When I form a fleet from a hangar nothing happens, it just creates the fleet. If I'm pumping out a lot of ships then I have to go and click the Idle Fleets button a bunch of times to select them afterward.

Problems caused

More clicks than necessary.

Proposed solution

An option or secondary button to automatically select the fleet after forming it.

4. Fleets List screen needs more useful info

Right now the fleets list screen just shows where the fleets are located, but not whether they are considered idle or not, or if there are enemy ships in the system.

Problems caused

I have to click "Idle Fleets" button many times. I also have to manually go and look through every single system ON THE MAP to see if there are enemies present in the systems to fight them. If I don't do this then fights won't happen, enemies will just be allowed to pass through the system without harm.

Proposed solution

Add columns or indicators to the Fleets List screen to show if there are enemies present or if the fleet is considered idle. Another nice QOL would be a count of how many turns a fleet has been sitting in the same system - sometimes I put a ship on Guard and then forget about it, this would be a nice reminder to collect those.

FINALLY the penultimate suggestion - Overlays!!

I'd like it if there was a map overlay toggle to allow us to show fleets with colored indicators for their statuses (moving, guard, idle, enemy present). I know that you have the the technology to do this as we already have the System/Economy/Trade/Diplomacy Scan overlays. These different overlays seem to switch depending on how far in we are zoomed when looking at the galaxy. Instead, put an overlay selection box on the corner of the screen (None/System/Economy/Trade/Diplomacy/Fleet/Whatever gets added next) and allow us to switch between overlays and keep the same overlay as we zoom in and out looking at different parts of the system. This would be really really huge for Fleet management in particular because it's the most dynamic and changing thing that we have to react to every single turn across our entire empire in late game - the other things that the other overlays show all have much more fleshed out menus of their own that makes managing them easy, and are tied to static planets that don't move.

Good QoL suggestions here