Thanks for comments Dominique and Dirk.

There were pickups I was not able to pick up.... and I don't know why
You won't pickup items that you already have like weapons and reactors. Also when you have
max amount of energy, ammo, and hull you won't pick up these types of pick-ups. That way your
wingmen can use them if you don't need them.

It's a little hard to keep an overview of your stats (life etc) and keeping an eye on your doings. Maybe it's me, maybe it's the positioning of the HUD. Don't know
Well, the stats are displayed directly on you ship too as little bars. But I too have problems
with it because I usually don't look at my ship but on what's in front of it. I just don't know where else to put them.

When I saw the intro, before the main menu comes up, I actually thought you could pick the ship you wanted to use, so I was a little disappointed to find that the ship I had to use was "allocated" to me.
Right now the ship you fly is part of the story. At least at the beginning - you are a test pilot of a new prototype (later you get a bigger ship). But I think ship class selection (say before every mission like in some combat space sims) could be done. But only main differences between ships
now are the look and hit points. You can get all other equipment from pickups. It could be much useful if ships had more distinguishing features like speed, maneuverability, armor, and others (maybe in future).

Pickups: I would gladly replace those boxes by some models but I don't have any. I can make only the simplest 3D models so the boxes will probably stay here (possibly with the neon glow - that's a good idea). Most of the ship models now are from various Internet or free or other sources (so majority of them would have to be replaced if going shareware or commercial). At least they are quite noticeable now if not pretty.

And finally: more player lives. Player can repeat each mission any times he wants now. But I understand that being shot down just before the end of the mission is not very pleasant experience. Well, pilot could eject and Navy could send him another ship. Maybe make the new ship invulnerable for a few seconds so the player could get out of the fire that killed him before?