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[Ihave500hats]

As a kid I grew up loving ships and naval combat, one of my favorite books is Fleet Tactics: theory and practice by Capt. Wayne P. Hughes. This book talks a lot about Tactical naval warfare, and it also applies to StarSector. Mostly these suggestions are based on StarSector and not real life, but a few are based off of the book.

Suggestions:

• Having the ability to make ships move in a column, and automatically space themselves out (or even make the distance between each ship in the column customizable). This could be useful for a fleet with many cruisers & capitals, so you could focus firepower.
• You can group ships together already, but what if you could make them focus on firing one type of weapon, for instance, make a Conquest with two Dominators group up and focus on only using ballistic weapons.
• A slightly different command UI, that makes the rally points smaller, so you can zoom in closer and force your ships into precise maneuvers.
• Making ship AI prioritize the players orders over attacking the nearest ship. Sometimes it is hard to force a ship out of combat by sending it to a faraway rally point or using the retreat functions.
• Different factions have different tactical doctrines. Obviously they already have some semblance of different tactical doctrines, but they need distinct patterns, as if the high command issued the same commands to all the fleets of a faction. Ex.: Hegemony frigates form a anti-flanking pattern around cruiser & capital ships, trying to protect that larger ship from missiles and other frigates.
• It would be interesting to see an expanded group of ship commands, so you could customize how you'd want your fleet to maneuver and attack.
• SMOKE SCREENS! This would be an awesome counterforce ability, we already have chaff and flare launchers, so why not destroyers with built in smoke screen systems? Maybe it can hold 3-4 charges that can only be used once, and the screen can have two different types: grenade type, where it launches forward and explodes in a set arc that covers a decent space, or trailing type, where it trails behind a destroyer (or frigate would be good) for a set amount of time. Both systems last for 20 seconds per charge, and the trailing type's timer doesn't start until the screen has be fully deposited.

[Vundaex]

All I get now is that combat is starting to feel outdated and overly streamlined.
The lack of controls makes combat rather frustrating at times and the AI needs an overhaul, as well as the pathfinding. I've lost more ships to in-fleet collisions rather than actual combat because it's impossible to organize your fleet before starting the fight.

[Ihave500hats]

The AI problems are a very common complaint. If you're having trouble with your fleet's ships running into each other, try checking out Grumpy Thumper Gaming's guides to SS, they're really helpful and worth the entire 30 mins one episode takes up lol. I was giving suggestions, not complaining about the game's combat, in fact I love the combat as it is currently, of course there is always room for improvement, but it's fine for now.

P.S: Also, it is easy to maneuver ships at the start of combat, I suggest using rally points and grouping ships together, or having frigates escort cruisers, stuff like that.