I think there are some things that should be done before going into Early Access and charging.
The first thing that I think needs to be dealt with is the tutorial. It is out of date, and has several issues that we found rather annoying. Some people will skip tutorials, but plenty will try them first, and a bad intro to the game can easily lose people.
Do you have any complaints with the SFX of the abilities?
I'm not as much of an audio person. I enjoy having music on in the background, and we often have some playing, but for me audio often blends into the background and is something more sub-conscious. The hover effect for Sheer Gumption stood out, but otherwise I think things are fine. Songbird will be better at answering on the audio, though I will try to pay more attention on the next play.
Does the art of the combat feel disjointed, with the hand painted backgrounds and vector art spaceships?
There is a bit of difference, but I'm also used to plenty of games having different art for the background to add a more epic feeling than the sprites can have. I think the current background is a bit too prominent, and some could use with being toned down, but the overall look of it is fine.
The color of the shield changes based on its HP. Is this visible?
I noticed the cards showing different colors, but when I used the Shields they were generally taken out in 1 attack, so you didn't really see any changes. I also only used 2 of the Shield cards, swapping from the starting one to the weaker 2 energy one, and only used them rarely. I did notice there was a color difference, and attributed it to the power of it, but did not get to see the color changing in combat. I think it is a good effect to have, even if I don't know how often it will be seen. Maybe the top tier ones will be better able to show it off.
Did you try reverse tank controls?
Nope. I think the basic ones are fine and didn't want to go changing things.
Are you generally satisfied with the movement in the game?
I think that with the mouse for rotation, the controls are fine. For general movement I use WASD, and then rotating to finish I use the mouse to line up on the target. The controls work for what they need to do. I think the different fuel amounts for each ship adds to the strategy of how to use them, even if it means needing to think a bit more before moving as to how to get the current ship where it can be most useful.