So I've decided after nearly 3 years and 1000 ranks later, I need advice on whether my ship is going in the right direction or not.

So here's my stats, what do you think I should work on, your opinions will be greatly appreciated.

Rank 1034
Unbuffed stats
Attack: 26228
Defense: 26713
Scan: 11459
Cloak: 9151

Artifact Production: Around 40k per hour
Mineral Production: Around 30k per hour
Research: 49260 per hour
Race: Ulrdinan Hacker, (working on black hat medal)

Player Kills: 1497
Deaths from players: 337
Non-player kills: 31016

I've only started pvping alot recently.

About 60% more AP than me. 2K more attack and 4K more defense.

I'm exactly 100 ranks above you, if you're looking to compare.

drop some res to make some more room for arti.
im about 50 lvls lower with about almost double your arti.
you do have about 8k mining and 13k res on me.
id focus on npcing more.
how much energy do you have?

15000+ energy, I can autorank on the "controlling the anomaly" mission but I don't wanna turn into a tin can.

Definitely looks like you need to NPC more. Increase your AP. Possibly, if you pay, drop some research planets to get more planet slots open for artifacts.

For a comparison

I am currently rank 780

Minerals 12392 units / hour
Artifacts 37710 points / hour
Production: 17757 research / hour

Space: 2802 / 2806
Attack: 14595
Defense: 13448
Scan: 2393
Cloak: 2163

Max Energy: 11098

Player Kills 2164
Deaths from Players 498 - I never halc... ever.
Non-Player Kills 36718

A long road to get here
Collect a daily reward after playing Galaxy Legion for over 2 years. Reward
643 / 730

Drop Ailward, that thing is crap out the wazoo!

Really? and you just seem to have a habit of tapping it monthly.

Do you want it?

Nah. Was just hoping that you would hard flux it and save me the purger. haha

I do that to the crappier enemy planets I have on scan, and I have saved myself quite a few purgers that way. Pretty awesome. lol