It can be very difficult to tell whether you outmatch a foe or not. What's worse, a little one way - the enemy gets wiped out, a little the other - you get wiped. Getting wiped is a waste of time, and wasting the player's time is a big problem.
Some previous suggestions to prevent every loss being a wipeout relied on disabled ships escaping somehow, but that has problems. Instead, I suggest interceding earlier. Ships should retreat automatically, i.e. rout, when they run out of peak performance time or lose half of their starting hull.
That's a little harsh, even if it works both ways, so officers should provide resistance to this. When a normal ship would rout, a steady officer "wavers", which is just a warning to the player. A steady officer routs only once their ship is at serious risk of malfunction (and out of PPT) or has lost 90% of its hull. Reckless and aggressive officers are more resistant and in fact never rout from hull damage, while cautious and timid officers are less resistant.
This idea isn't intended to totally prevent player fleet wipes, but it should make them the exception. Thus saving us a lot of time and trouble.
