It makes for a lot of clicking to check how much pounding the own and enemy ship can take - it is necessary to check it as the visual representation of the shield only shows a relative value meaning: if tells you if the shield is full strength but not if it is 80 units strong or 240.
This goes for all Armour and integrity as well, but is most important for shields as they block boarding and other weapons
Please also indicate the ship type and name in the tactical combat when the ship is selected as there can be many variants of a ship with the same hull, and seeing the designation/name helps a lot if many ships are in the combat
For shuttles: They cannot be launched outside of their effective range. Is this intended? As they are basically small craft I would expect them to fly to their target even if they cannot board it within a single turn. If the player wishes to risk them being shut down that is...
Currently they cannot be engaged by fighters as they always launch within range - the above would make more use of fighter craft as these would be optimal to counter shuttles - fighter escorts can be used in this scenario as well to counter the fighters sent against shuttles ...
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif)
On firing arcs: are you planning to expand upon these so that broadsides can be used and more maneuvering is done in battle?
Lowering the side and rear shields would also go a long way to encourage positioning though I understand the AI would have that much harder a job working wit that. Still the effort might be worth it, as else the ships tend to face off one another even in bug fleets and only pounding their front sides until the shields are depleted. It is specifically not recommended currently to go hit an enemy ship from several sides at once. If you do not plan on implementing the above, would it make sense to get rid of the 4 different sides of the shields and having only a single shield value
Please make the logo of the empires/raiders a hyperlink leading from the galactic map to the diplomacy screen with them, so ease communication when there are a lot of races (and they will be similar on large maps especially the marauders)