The way it's handled in the TV show changes from scene to scene. The Cylons do or do not attack the civilians based on the screenwriter's prerogative, and are positioned according to logic that is completely outside the script.
The typical conceit is that it's implied the Galactica is 'between' the fleet and Cylons. In other cases the Cylons just fly in and around the civilian vessels without harming them until it's pertinent to the plot to do so. If you're paying close attention it's actually quite comical how unnecessarily benevolent the Cylons are to the fleet; they could have wiped out the human race multiple times with ease. The Battle of the Ionian Nebula is a perfect example of this. Galactica holds off the Basestars from outside the fleet, whilst the raiders just zip around the civilian vessels and only bother to ram their missiles up the ample scenery pieces (*ahem* I mean civilian ships) when they roll a natural 6, even though they could have leveled the fleet long before they detected Anders.
This is fine. It means I have room to play around and see what suits the game best. I don't have to take any 'easy routes' either way. At the end of the day gameplay takes priority, and these sorts of decisions will come out in the wash once play-testing proper starts. For now it's all about considering the implications as opposed to making hard choices on whether I should keep certain gameplay aspects before I have any feedback on them.
I had a busy morning today. Took a detour of around three hours to add a fresh new mechanic to the combat side: Firing solutions. Battlestars can now plot flak fire against either one or two angles simultaneously. This flak fire completely ignores the usual CIWS principles of Starsector's point defence weapons; instead they work as in the show, setting up a screen of fire a fixed distance from the Battlestar.
The result improves the dynamics of the fighting immensely. Being caught out of position against raiders is a bigger deal now: You either need a close escort or to allocate a certain amount of your defensive flak to negating the approach of fighters. I've also given the Cylon Basestars high-yield warheads. They're less numerous than previous, but if you let a single one through they pack a punch. They have decent range now, forcing you to always consider the position of the Basestars lest one of them swing around and start unloading missiles in to your blind spot before you can react. Naturally facing off against three, or four, Basestars, at equidistant vectors from your Battlestar, becomes an extremely deadly proposition.
The firing solutions are quite organic. If you allocate all your flak fire in an arc covered by a small number of flak cannons then the effectiveness is reduced dramatically. Similarly, if you deploy your flak on your broadsides you get maximum utility, but risk having either fighters or a Basestar sneak in their fire in to the central gaps. This makes manoeuvring far more relevant, and often I find myself drifting off-vector to get optimal positioning: trading off position for defense, offense for defense, or offense for position, as required. The cannons take a decent amount of time to re-vector on new firing angles, meaning you have to think in advance where you want your flak placed before the fracas starts.
For the purposes of testing, the firing solution is controlled via the numpad. I was surprised at how intuitive this interim solution is. After the first couple of missions, once I got used to it, I found modifying the angles to be quite a fun challenge alongside also directing the fleet and handling the other weapons. There's lots still to do though. The AI uses it, but not too intelligently; it only understands when to use broadsides ATM. Also, the flak fire should be MRV munitions that disperse in to multiple dumb warheads, but currently they're just standard single frag warheads.
I've also added standard ShaderLib support for all the major ships (Battleships/Basestars) and weapons systems, with material/normal/surface maps, which was quite painless. I also added a cringeworthy bit of CIC audio when a firing solution is first plotted. I rather hate the sound of my own voice when recorded, but it let me test out cutting voice acting in with ambient FX from the series. That bit worked as hoped; sounded like I was actually in the CIC.
The missions have mostly balanced themselves out now. I can't beat the Pegasus with the Galactica, which is now a really tough fight. I don't even get through one Basestar in the ambush scenario; too many damn raiders. Taking out the lone Basestar with the Yashuman is still pretty easy, and feels just right. The time-to-kill has increased, but with the added dynamics it doesn't get tiresome nearly as fast as before. This is closer to the intended play of combat.
The Kobol objective 'quest line' is nearing completion. Once that's in I'll be adding other multiple-battle, multiple-decision objectives to add a bit of narrative punch to the otherwise fairly dry business of keeping the fleet from falling apart.
A Galactica-class utilising the new firing solution mechanic to hold off a Basestar and her raider complement. Note that some of the raiders have gone around and snook in some fire before the Vipers can intercept: