Wow, thinking about it, that IS pretty impressive for a game.
The Map shows the planets and other stuff you don't need to "see".
In a combat situation, it could get a little tough judging the distances to, say, a population you want to protect, or quickly seeing if there is a hostile fleet approaching etc.
When in actual Combat, I normally use the combat screen, which shows distance on most possible targets, and in question, theres always the auto fire option, but don't use that on Anti-Missile Escorts, or they will target enemy ships instead.
You can set those up to fire at enemy missiles automatically, though.
In combat, movement orders are also normally set relative to targets, like follow in X distance (which probably is optimal weapon range).
If you have a good conception of the positions, you can probably extrapolate the overall situation of the battle by the ship positions relative to each other.
In aurora, it's normally several fleets/subfleets fighting, not dogfights or skirmishes.
In the end, it might end up changing the gameplay a little, you'll have to concentrate more on way-marks, like Planets, so battles are likely to take place either around planets or on collision course with an enemy fleet, as waypoints won't be set.
I think for taskforce training, waypoints might be necessary, though, I personally never had problems without.
I imagine it is considerable effort to play this game without visuals, the interface must be a nightmare, but if you already get along with that, I guess that won't stop you now.
