FreeOrion

When viewing a combat log, it would be really neat to use the 3d combat engine to just create a mock cut-scene of the ships shooting at each other and blowing up.

Doing this before there's player vs AI interface might make for a good ai on ai stopping point, to illustrate the combat that already exists.

-Crissa

While it may initially be a good idea, I think it could become repetitive for frequent battles, I think possibly a dialogue with some tactical choices like blockade planet, intercept fleet, run, hide, or whatever you can think of would be better - possible accompanied by enemy fleet size and tech level so the player can runaway or fight them...

Perhaps this could take the form of a simple graphic depiction, much like in a game X-com UFO, where the UFO size was shown on radar as a differing sized green blob. The bigger it was, the harder the enemy was likely to be. This could simulate your ships scanners prior to engaging the enemy, the better equipped your ship the more info about the target you could acquire and better formulate your tactics. Just an idea...