Yes, will be starting on combat this week. Still got to do AI and there are a lot of minor areas as well, including ground combat - naval combat interaction. I have done about 90% of the movement orders, although still not made a decision on whether MSP should be instant load or treated like fuel and ordnance. Compromise may be special system needed for MSP transfer (spaceport, maintenance facilities, ship system) but transfer is instant.
I think there's a great deal to be said for taking a consistent approach one way or the other. If fuel/ordnance/cargo all take take to load, why shouldn't MSP?
May also look at how easy is currently is to repair on-board systems. Could change to two damage states. Damaged and Destroyed, with only the former repairable without specialist facilities.
On-board repair is a very interesting discussion indeed. I guess the biggest gameplay change would be that destroyed engines could leave a ship stranded, lots of decisions then about scuttling it, sending a tug (into hostile territory?), or maybe adding tractor beams onto fuel/ordnance tankers for just that situation.
I suppose mechanics-wise the question would be whether you create a two step process (ie a system becomes damaged first, and then destroyed on a further hit) or if it is simply a chance of either damage state on each hit? Maybe instead of straight out damaged/destroyed you could assign a % damaged value, with the component stopping working at 50%+ and being destroyed at 100%? You could also tie that directly into the HTK mechanism, so that larger components are both somewhat resilient to being damaged and also more resilient to being destroyed.
In that case small systems are likely to always be destroyed beyond repair. You might then want to change the way Damage Control works, perhaps allow it replace destroyed systems below a certain HTK size?
Sorry, I realise this is getting complicated fast!