[davewski]

That sharing aspect is actually one of the potential issues. I'll use a specific analogy.

I play Star Wars Galaxies. In that game various character classes have abilities and can use specific combat maneuvers giving them certain advantages in combat. People can create macros string together various maneuvers so that pushing one button executes the entire sequence. Eventually, people figured out that by combining classes 'X' and 'Y', using technologies '1' and '2', and stringing together maneuvers 'a' and 'b', they could create macros resulting in nearly unkillable, unbeatable characters in PvP. This has resulted in situations where most everyone who wanted to compete equally in PvP had to adopt similar methods. It basically eliminated any type of real decision making. People just went into combat and executed the same macros over and over. This made a lot of people very unhappy. The game developers have had to play catch up ever since constantly revising weapons, classes, and maneuvers to try and balance out the situation.

That type of situation could occur in a game like this by allowing people to create fully automated scripts for simultaneous combat. People are smart and eventually someone would figure this out. Anyone who wouldn't have a similar script could be at a severe disadvantage. People would share the scripts with each other and the game could become a cookie-cutter game where most people take race X or Y; techs 1,2,3; build designs a,b,c; use combat scripts A,B; or most likely lose a multi-player game.

It might not actually happen, but it is a subject to consider. Personally, I like the current system of manually programming maneuvers for ships and fleets. It's a bit more micro-management, but it creates uncertainty. Choose the wrong tactics or strategy and you lose. Sometimes you lose even when choosing right. That's what war is all about.