Variable speed probably isn't going to solve his issue, and probably won't work very well on several different levels. There are going to be people who just don't like the Fleet Battles portion of the game, it's just not their cup of tea. I would rip a page out of Gary Grigsby's playbook to resolve this.

Way back when I was doing IKNFL we had a segment of the audience telling us that they never even called the plays themselves in coach mode. They would sim most of the games of the season, but would let the AI play the AI in key games like a divisional game between a team they were tied with, playoff games, and of course the Super Bowl. They were “strategy game players” who wanted to treat FPS Football as a strategy game, and they were really, really into just watching the games.

Gary Grigsby's games often worked this way as well, such as World At War or Uncommon Valor where you would just watch the units fight each other on a simple “battle board” like screen. Believe it or not, a lot of gamers REALLY like this kind of thing!

So for players who don't like Fleet Battles, I would provide an option to just let the AI fight the AI. The player will imagine themselves as the captain of the flagship sending one of their ships off on a mission, and then watching the fight to see how their “subordinate” does. There will be a natural rock, paper, scissors balance and the player will learn which ships beat which other ships, and will eventually know which ship to send v which opponent.

So Star Control 2 (which Origins is following, at least in gameplay) is not a 4X - it is a space exploration action/adventure game, a hybrid of many different things. SC1 did have light turn-based strategy elements but mainly focused on action combat, more than SC2 in fact. Also inertial movement (it sounds like you want direct and immediate movement in any direction?) is pretty fundamental to how the game works and can't really be changed.

So you're probably not going to like fleet battles in the end. But you might still enjoy single player, where combat is important but only one element of the game alongside exploring space, talking to aliens, etc. SC2 had a cyborg mode where the AI will fight the battles for you, which I assume will be in Origins too. A speed setting is also a good idea.

Star Control is definitely not 4x. You're going to be disappointed if you're expecting that.

Finally played the beta a bit and noticed some things I'm not too fond of (yet). Probably things I'm not used to / reacting negatively to:

1. The thrusters are always 'on' as long as your ship is moving without even pressing the throttle.

2. As someone had pointed out in another thread (I think), the camera can pan out really far away making it hard to distinguish the front of the ship. Making sure you know your bearings is key lest your ship wanders into the asteroid field, especially when using that ship that zips through space as a special ability. It's really hard to distinguish the front of that particular ship.

3. The asteroid field that gradually closes in gives the battles a sense of urgency, but also discourages long, drawn out battles. I hope this is only in Super Melee. I wouldn't want this in the main game because if I had a cheap measly fleet because of my limited RUs, I would want to avoid close quarters combat as much as possible and chip away at the enemy from a distance- something that isn't possible with the shrinking asteroid field.

4. I also noticed it's near impossible to slingshot / swing through the gravity field of the planet. Ships always end up crashing into the planet.

I kinda like that the battlecruiser can shoot through the planet. It just would work better if the whole battlefield was larger, that ship just dominates the current battlefield.

What system are you using and did you make sure that your computer can meet the minimum requirements. 

The combat speed hasn't changed in my opinion. The trick, as with the past games, was to have full control of your ship and choose the perfect time to engage in a dogfight. If you find yourself always getting into close quarters combat, you're playing the game wrong in my opinion --- unless of course if you control that big bully ship that fires a gigantic laser and flak canons.

The most satisfying ship to use right now is the Trandals ship in my opinion - the one that lets you zip in and out of combat. It requires some skill and technique. The best thing about it is the fact that its weapon is affected by inertia, so if you time your speed boost and weapon fire well, your laser can travel long distances-- and fast! It also packs a mean punch.

@Das123

While there was never a speed option (as far as I remember) in the original games, the original Star Control game allowed each of the two players to be one of four types:

• Human – The human completely controls this side.
• Computer – The computer completely controls this side.
• Cyborg – Computer fights battles for human players.
• Psytron – Computer decides strategy for human players.

Star Control 2 also included the Cyborg allowed the player to enable Cyborg mode and to control the difficulty of the computer opponent in the story mode.

It would make complete sense to be able to at least allow the computer to fight your battles for you.