[Fyron]

But minefields have absolutely no effect in real time battles which is a right waste of a brillaint gameplay concept.

Whatever mechanic you are thinking of can work in real time battles just the same as turn based ones...

Similarly planets acting as communication/radar blocks, gravity effects, communication limitations due to warp point distances, etc

In order for a planet to block communication between ships, there would first have to be communication between ships implemented. I'm not sure what benefit that would provide though. You can simulate ships being able to hide from radar by giving the "sector - sight obscuration" ability to planets. It's not perfect, but it works.

I don't think gravity effects from planets are very relevant at the scale of ship speeds in SE. When you have the thrust potential to cross an entire star system in two months (at the beginning of the game), overcoming the gravity of any planet is trivial. Even a ship with disabled engines in combat wouldn't fall towards a planet fast enough to make a difference in combat, compared to how fast the other ships are moving.

Communications lag is bad for gameplay in a 4x game through and through. WPs provide instantaneous travel, so it stands to reason they should provide instantaneous communication as well.