This is probably a pie-n-the-sky wish, but?
A battle management screen. Basicly, it?s the Task Force commanders CIC. From here you issue orders to subordinate groups for maneuver, who is screening/escorting whom, posture change (shields/active sensors/fighter launches/etc), targeting priority, etc.
All of this section is on the Fleet Moves window, except targeting priority, which doesn't exist in the game. Targeting priority is not easy to handle because different ships at different ranges with different weapons would have different priorities.
Plug your Tactical inteligence changes into here, make that intel staffer earn his keep. 
I could add combine the Tac Intelligence and Fleet Moves windows by using tab views but then you wouldn't be able to see both at the same time.
How quickly ship orders are distributed would be infuenced by the TF CO?s rating and the Ops staffers rating.
This happens already in v2.41
So going for fighter group orders except the Flight Ops staffers rating is used instead of Ops. Or perhaps in addition too.
Again I could try to add the fighters orders section from the Strikegroup window but you would still need that window for all the other fighter info so this wouldn't reduce the amount of windows or fields.
An added maneuver feature would be the ability to issue general heading orders. At a tactical level this makes more sense too me than destination orders.
If you need to use a heading rather than a destination, set a waypoint in the direction you want to go.
A really nice to have, would be a tactical level map that can only expand out to the limit of the sensors in use. Maybe with an option to show point defense coverage area and settings.
You can already show active/passive sensor ranges and weapon ranges (including point defence) ranges on the tactical map. I could black out the rest of the map but you really would be better off if you could see the planets, asteroids, etc.
Also the ability to advance the clock, at least in tactical increments (seconds and minutes only).
This is on the tactical map, which you need to use to see the battle anyway
I know this is a tall order to fill. It would require extense changes to the current database as well as most likely significant changes to your core code. But the buy back, at least for me, is the ability to centralize the battle management of a task force or group. This is roughly what I?ve always invisioned for a game vs needing to handle weapons assignments at the individual ship level.
To handle the above changes I would effectively have to create a new window containing the bulk of functionality from the Tactical Map, Fleet Moves, Fighter Moves, Tac Intelligence and presumably Task Force information. If you want to give combat orders as well, which are currently on the Ship and Battle Overview window, I would have to add a tab with the Battle Overview window as well. I would also restrict the ships and fleets displayed to those within one Task Force.
Almost everything you ask for is available already, just not all together on the same window. If I put it together, I would have to put everything on seperate tabs so it wouldn't really be any different except you could no longer see separate windows at the same time. Its split up at the moment because of sheer amount of information. Rereading it sounds like I am being negative about this but that is not my intention. It would just be a lot of work moving everything to the same window and it wouldn't add any new functionality.
Steve
