[klausD]

The primary reason for switching to realtime combat was for play balance. In SEIV, the turnbased nature of combat gives a HUGE advantage to whoever gets to shoot first, which is usually determined pretty much randomly

If the "play balance" was the prob in SEIV then its easy to change it without turning the whole tactical system upside down. MOO2 has achieved this with a simple trick - alternating initiatives depending on the offence modifier. With a little bit time to think about it a similar solution would also have been possible in SEV.

And regarding play balance. In realtime the guy which clicks faster on some pause or order button wins over the slower thoughtful guy. And while he manage one part of the battlefield he get stomped on the flanks by his frenetic clicking enemy who is used to play those realtime shooters. THIS I call a problem in play balance.

To solve the problem with the faster clicks the only possible solution seems to me if the game automatically stops every minute or so and this is the only time both players can give orders. During the game is moving no order issuing should be allowed by any of the players. After order issuing the game should only go ahead if both players (not just one) hit their "go" buttons until the time the next predefined pause showes up allowing to give new orders. Another realtime system prefers the fastclicker over the slow thinker.

Another problem is the range of weapons. As long as the weapon range is per hex or per square there is no problem in calculating the necessary distances for optimal usage of a weapon.
And how is it in realtime? I suppose you have to hit a seperate button for each single ship to be informed about the maximum weapon ranges. What is with bigger ships and different weapons on them? Do I have to click on each weapon system seperately? And do I have to calculate in the current moving speed, so that the weapon range of every weapon on every of my ships is changing every second? A real clicking nightmare if you want to control a whole fleet. And very dissatisfying if you fire-click too soon and the salvo is 3mm to short.

Such a realtime system is not what I understand of a good strategic game. MOO3 is greeting!

Ground combat screen
Thanks for the link to the screenshot. If this is used then it seems that the ground combat system is hex- and turnbased. Not a bad thing if it is designed well.
So now we have a turnbased ground combat system and a realtime space combat system? (and a turnbased strategic system) What comes next?

Single Person and Heroes
I still think they add unnecessary design time but I can live with them as long as the rest of the game is ok.