...You can now play until you die or quit. No more bugging out every time.
Steam doesn't log in-game hours for this beta, but I would guess I have 20+ hours in. Trying to log as many bugs as possible.
The next dev step is probably the activation of the periscope UI, maybe a save function (speculation).
nihilcat stated recently that Q1/19 is a solid bet for general alpha release. He said he would actually sign off on that estimate (unlike previous estimates).