Bottom line: Having fast ships is so important because the 'speed' of ship not only determins the number of spaces you can go, but also the number of attacks you can make.
This kind of system works pretty well for GC2, but it does tend to over-emphesize the importance of having the biggest & best engines.
Personally, I'd like to see a seperation between how fast a ship can go and how many times it can attack in a round.
To this end, I'd like to suggest to the Developers this:
Just as researching 'Propulsion' provides the ability to give ships Movement Points, make it so that researching 'Combat Computers/Advanced Tactics' (perhaps an offshoot on the Tech Tree of 'Advanced Computing) provides the ability to give ships Tactical Points.
This way, engine tech would play a lesser role in combat as Tactic Points would determine the number of times a ship/fleet could attack.
Additionally, you could set it up so that Tactics Points have a role in the actual combat itself.
For example:
(*As you move your fleet to engage another, you receive a pop up message*)
'Fleet XXXX is about to engage the Yor Fleet ZZZZ'
Fleet XXXX Tactical Rating: X
Yor Fleet ZZZZ Tactical Rating: Y
What Battle Plan would you like to employ?
o Agressive
o Defensive
o Balanced
---------
The computer would then analyize the 'Tactics' choosen by the human player & AI, offset the choices where applicable, and adjust the 'dice' rolls during combat.
....just a 'thought'.
(I realize that somethng like this *won't* be in any patches or even an expansion, but perhaps something like it could be in GC3?)
