The armor penetration system did not need replaced

It just needed to be less dramatically punishing with small differences in level.

Now that the monsters have no level it almost feels like they are all the same and i'm not sure what to expect when I go after one. Planets all being the same level within a sector makes them feel the same as well.

 

Jesus wept, yes it did!

 

I'd say it did need altering, but not this radically. I think I prefer this system, but now there seems to be too much of a gap between different difficulties. The game feels far too easy and flattened in terms of combat now.

Personally, I think, even if the threat levels are the same as they are now, there should be harder/weaker monster variants in order to make the game feel less flat.
EG, Threat level 1 planet, There should be a chance to spawn 3/4 variants of the randomly created monsters that spawn, such as the Baby variant they showed on the front page, an Adolescent, an Adult, and then a Grizzled/Veteran one, rather than just Mob X and sometimes random Sub-boss Y. This way, things don't get boring, there's still monsters that you'll find slightly more challenging until you've fully geared for the tier of game you're at, and yeah..

I don't know, I just hope they still tweak it more rather than just leaving it as it is now.

Edit, I know that was a bit off topic, but the now implemented DPS system is good/better, so rather than altering that, I think its now the mobs that need altering.