What kind of options would you like to see for the "attack" command?
I.e., when you give one of your ships a command to attack something, what parameters would you like to be able to specify?
Here are some examples off of the top of my head:
- Distance
Your ship will try to maintain a certain distance from the target. Useful when you know that your ship has a range advantage, or perhaps that the other ship is incapabable of dealing with threats up-close. In the former case, you will order your ship to attack from many KM, whereas in the latter case, you will command it to attack from only a few meters (probably only in the case of fighters).
Region
Imagine a cube surrounding the target, you can specify one or more faces of that cube, and have your ship try to stay within that projected region. For example, suppose you know that the most powerful flak turrets are on the top and bottom of a given cap ship...then you will command your fighters to restrict themselves to one of the side regions, so as to avoid the heavy threats on the top and bottom. This is a great option for exercising your knowledge of the target ship if you've encountered it before.
Formation
This isn't really specific to the "attack" command, it will be an option in virtually any command in which you are ordering multiple ships. Pretty obvious one. But for the "attack" option, I imagine you will have a few more advanced options, such as when to break formation (if ever) for the attack run. Maybe that could be a distance, i.e., fly formation until 1 KM from target, then break and attack individually. Or you can say to maintain a strict formation even during the attack (although I'm not yet sure if that will be possible).
Retreat Condition
Specify a condition for retreat - hull drops below certain %, shields down, etc. Good if you don't want to lose your ship!
Stopping Condition
Specify when to stop - sort of the reverse of retreat condition. Target's hull drops below certain %, target shields are down, etc. Good if you won't want to destroy the target completely.
Subsystem Targets
Specify how big of a "threat" each subsystem is, essentially creating a ranked list of sub-targets for the attacker to take out. You can also specify if certain subsystems should be left unharmed. This is how you will go about disabling particular subsystems, like the engines or weapons.
Also, please make sure that your suggestion is functional, not just "cool." Each of the examples I gave has a clear functional purpose, and you might use each of them to achieve a certain effect. Make sure that you're clear about why someone would want to specify the parameter that you're suggesting.
Thanks!
PS ~ Mods, please feel free to edit this post and add good suggestions to my list as they come up