About combat
What i'd like to see, is a simple ''formation'' setting
This would give room to countlless playstyles and make tech/fleet setups so much more intresting
you would make the decision at the start of battle, or as an empire wide preset(prob both)
Example
Swarm - your fleet focuses on maneuvering into the blindspots of 1 bigger enemy ship and taking it down,and then going for the next
Stalemate - Your fleet considers its positions carefully and stays in solid formation no matter what, to capitalize its high armor/shields rating and to minimize losses
Blitzkrieg - Your fleet best ships try to charge through the enemy rank in one agressive push,allowing no time to react or recover
Shock & Awe - Your fleet displays its military might by constant but excessive heavy weaponfire in the enemys area,trying to break the enemy ranks and morale
Hide and Seek - your fleet sacrifices an expendable fast ship to try and expose the enemy flank, so they can strike the enemy flagship with everything they got
Eye for an Eye - Your fleet swiftly engages the enemy in a scattered formation, aiming for their small ships,only to finish the run on a suicidal close encounter on their flagship
Absorb and avoid - Your fleet will keep maneuvering the front ships to the rear when they reach high dmg states, to avoid shiploses and spread dmg across the fleet
Iron Fist - your fleets weaker/higher firepower ships will remain in the centre of a small pact formation while the stronger armored ships take the beating
Every strategy would give a specific internal stat bonus for that battle calculation
Every strategy would be slightly more effect to counter some strategys, and unsuccesfull against other strategys
Example
Blitzkrieg - your most advanced ship takes dmg first , your fleetdeals +5% dmg bonus against stalemate and swarm, no enemy ship can escape
Countered by Hide and Seek - your fleet loses its bonus and the enemy deals more dmg against your fleets flagship
Swarm - dmg received is spread across your own slower ships first(saves your smaller fighters), the enemy biggest/slowest ship receives all your dmg, switching to the next target on succesfull takedown
bonus against Absorb and avoid, and Hide and seek:the enemy fleet losses theyr formation effect,enemy small fighters might try to flee from the battle on losing the first big ship
Countered by Shock & Awe, the enemy fleets now always hits, your fleet loses its formation bonus