[ZeroAdunn]

Fyron: I was actually having trouble getting anything to post on my sidekick.

Anyways, what I was going to say:

I would like a system of defense and offense rating.

Offense rating would be the total amount of damage a ship can soak and pd rating.

Offensive rating is an equation of scanning/damage/rate of fire.

When setting strategies you can choose attack priorities based on these values.

I definately think battleGroups within a fleet are a great idea. However, I owuld prefer to se formations unique to each fleet. Oh sure, you could load up defaults, but each default could be customized.

The way I would like to see formations handled is:
You bring up the formations window, and select the fleet you wish to modify. Each ship would fill a slot and when added into the fleet this identifier would display in the ship display window. When creating formations you first creat the battlegroup formation by placing the ship identifiers on a grid. Once done you can assign these same formations to other battleGroups or design new ones. Then you go up to the fleet window and place the various battleGroups into a larger arrangement. When a ship is destroyed or if you plan a battlegroup to have more ships then currently available this is displayed by an empty slot in the ship/battlegroup/fleet display, and when you go to add new ships to the fleet, you fill slots rather then randomly addung ships to the formation. If you want to add more ships then you have slots for, simply make another battlegroup. If all the ships of a battlegroup are destroyed, the battlegroup doesn't just dissapear, it must be physicly removed from the fleet arrangement.

Sure it is a little more complex, and maybe even a little hard to understand, but in later game when fleets have hundreds of ships in them it will make planning of ship construction and fleet arrangement far easier.

I've got tons more to expand on this idea, but now I must go home.