[Taqwus]

It might have been easier in Stars! if the latter did not allow custom tech trees.

Here, retrofitting initiative at the level of individual components would be, er, tricky. And what if components get damaged during combat, or if a ship has different weapons, some of which are considered fast and others slow?

Hmmm. More complication could be tolerated if the interface becomes simpler, such as the AI picking all targets and when to fire -- IOW, user intervention (and thus, constant interruption) wouldn't be as much of an issue. Plot courses, give some hints perhaps (targetting priorities, say), and then the system executes for some number of rounds.

------------------
-- The thing that goes bump in the night