Problem:
Though I'd argue the combat simulator could use a general overhaul, one of its greatest liabilities at the moment is that it can't simulate "actual" battles that the player will face. Why? None of the ships you face have officers/skills. Unskilled ships become less and less of a challenge as the player (or his/her officers) advance in level and more and more opponents have officers/skills as you progress further into the game and face higher-end bounties, larger fleets, and faction expeditions.
When it takes an unskilled Paragon to be a challenge for your level 20 Officer'd Destroyer, I think the challenge curve is broken.
Solution:
Add an option to give Simulated opponents a random officer (i.e. random skills chosen) of a given level. That is, the player can check a box (like in /dev mode with "max player skills") and input an officer level and all Sim opponents will have a random officer assigned to them of that level when they spawn. Since fighting a specific skill set is highly unlikely in-game, keeping it random simulates actual battles more readily than having to micro-manage the officers faced. The caveat is that Carriers would have Carrier-skills and non-Carriers would not have Carrier skills but I think the game already handles this in fleet generation, as-is.
Though it would add some randomness into the Sim, the fact that you're fighting random officers during actual gameplay actually makes it more in-line with what the player will be facing (which is the point taking your loadout out for a "test drive," right?)
Comments/Suggestions welcome.
