Any idea on how will the ship combat look like? Will it be turn based like BOTF1? Will it be similar to Wolfes attempt?

I have 2 different ideas on how it may work:

1. Turn based (similar to BOTF 1). This idea allows us to make a hot-seat mode, but it's also the least realistic looking one. Stage 1. Ships will start on 2 different sides of the map. Player 1 clicks on his ships, selects one of the predetermined attack pattern (Alpha, delta, omega, ... , later when ships get more experience the there could also be patterns like Picard maneuver, Worf maneuver, ...), then he selects his target. Player can also switch between Group/Solo targeting (Group and solo work like in Botf1). Player 1 could also select New attack pattern and create an attack pattern of his own. After player 1 is done player 2 selects his attack pattern (then player 3, etc.), now the battle commences, ships fly around, destroy ships, evade, ... Stage 2 begins, same as stage 1, select ships, attack patterns, click end turn, repeat process.

2. Real time (with ability to change the speed). Similar to turn based, but you change attack patterns on the fly, you can pause the game, to issue orders or just slow it down. In the case where multiple players are fighting over multiplayer, the game progresses with the slowest selected speed of all player (player 1 wants to go at 2x, 2 wants to go at 1x, but 3 wants to pause. The game pauses. Then player 3 changes to 3x speed, and the game resumes at 1x because player 2 wishes so).

I also have another suggestion, but this one is about ships in combat. In films we see ships firing torpedoes in volleys, can we also have the same thing here (Galaxy will fore a volley for 4 torpedoes, defiant will fire 2 volley of 4 quantum torpedoes,...). Also can we pleas have more than just beam weapons (pulse disruptors, pulse phasers, Tricobalt torpedoes, Missiles, sometimes even laser and projectile weapons). This is where Botf 1 failed miserably, you never saw ships in ST shows fire 76 torpedoes in 5 seconds or B'Rell firing beam disruptors. Even if we have a ship , lets say Defiant with 16 torpedoes to fire per turn, can you (maybe even me if I get the time, will and nerves to finnish C++ or c# tutorials) guys make so that the defiant fires his 16 torpedoes in volleys (Defiant attacks, fires 4 torpedoes from each of his launchers - 8 torpedoes total - than waits 2-3 seconds and fires another volley - now at 16 torpedoes.)

Another thing to consider is how to make ships feel different for each empire. I like how this is solved in Star Trek Armada 2 fleet ops mod: they have 5 empires - Borg, Federation, Klingons, Romulans and the Dominion.

Borg have powerful and costly ships. This means the borg attack with little fleets (4-5 ships), which later in the game require huge fleets from other empires to defeat. This also meant that the loss of one ship is very punishing as even the basic ships (like scouts) cost several times more than the ships of other empires.

Federation is more defense oriented, they have weaker hulls, but stronger defense (70% of ship defense are shields, and only 30% is hull. its 60/40 for other races, except klingon). Their shields are very strong, but once broken the ship is certainly doomed. Their weapons are average, special weapons are mostly defensive, their ships cost is average.

Klingons emphasize on offense. Their weapons are stronger and so are their hulls, but their shields are weaker (50/50 ratio). This gives a nice impression, that a Klingon vessel can continue to fight, even with it's shields down. They also have cloak, but it is configured so they cannot use it for cloak-recloak strategies. Their ships are a bit costly.

Romulans have costly ships, with firepower greater than that of a klingon vessel, but only for a few seconds after cloak. After that their ships become less effective. They rely on their abilities to stay alive for the short time they are uncloaked and they can recloak faster then the klingons.

Dominion has cheap ships, that are less effective alone, but terribly dangerous in large swarms. Their ships produce faster and are cheaper in every way except in supplies (which shows the so-many-times-seen problem with Ketrecell White distribution. Bit after those problems are solved, Dominion enjoys the fastest ship production, which offsets the lesser stats of their ships.

I feel much better now that that's out of my system

We discussed this a few months ago. So far the idea is to keep it TB, but a 3D version of it.

Ships already have different stats based on empires Feds have stronger shields, Cards stronger hulls and more powerful beams, Roms more powerful torps, Klings weaker defenses but more weapons, Dom faster ships, etc. I actually spent the whole weekend reviewing ships and stations

There was actually an inversion relative to BotF which I'm not sure about. Roms now have the slowest ships in the game (including the colony ship), instead of the Cards - the Cards have the best scanners, which compensated their slower ships in BotF, for interception purposes. The Cards retained their stronger hulls, and their ships are now the cheapest, and the Roms have the most expensive in general.