I saw alpha of GalCiv 3 and i was playing GalCiv 2 and it was just anoying when it's time for star battle. Animated battles are not good enoug for me. My suggestion it will be to create something similar to battles in Heroes Of Might and magic 3 and Civilization 5 atributes. Hexgrid with all ship in fleets but every ship will have range of firing, speed on battlefield, speed of shilds recharging (in turns), maybe go in details and hull could be repaired, good exmple of battlefield is XCOM: Enemy Unknown, maybe create something similar to that. I know that strategic, diplomatic and economic aspect of game are most important but game will be more interesting with big battles!