[Taqwus]

Others have suggested numerous ideas, such as a phased combat system (I believe Stars! currently uses both movement and firing phases), and impulses (again, more discretization).

Simply plotting movements (perhaps for all ships before a phase, then all ships move simultaneously albeit not necessarily with equal speed) with AI fire control (mostly) might be a good idea.

As for decoy ships, perhaps they can be avoided by specifying a targetting priority series like (Has Weapons, Strongest, Most Damaged, Nearest). If Strongest refers to attack power that is... the whole strategy bit could use more documentation/options (e.g. ordering ships to ram if crippled, and so forth).

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