Is there a way to increase combat speed, besides just maxing out engines?

You can create ways, via modding, but as things stand your best bet is to include some fighters in your fleets and save 'em for when the enemy is running.

There are 10 types of people in the world:

Those that understand binary, and those that don't.

I've noticed that even if I have 3 movement points on an opponent ship it can still manage to slip away. I've used two tactics to deal with these little slippery buggers. One is to chase it over a warp point with another ship on the other side. Once they are right over the warp point I have the other ship warp through and "surprise" them.

Second, simpler tactic is to use long range seekers like capital ship missiles. They typically will catch-up to them.

--
Supreme Chancellor Zannis of the T'Nar Republic

I use figheter to chase them down when I can.

Fighters are the surest bet, I haven't tried Drones yet. Other ways to increase the ship's speed are: Quantum engines, Racial Ability (+1 speed), Solar Sail (works in combat?), and for Fighters: Afterburners.

However to simply catch them: end combat (stop your ships movement), then use the sector view to move your ships close to the enemy, then back in the system view move a ship in and you'll be in position to attack.

./cough, fixed bug.

There are 10 types of people in the world:

Those that understand binary, and those that don't.

Unfortunately I see this as a required feature for this game.

In my experience this game does not deal with several parts of reality which make this and several other in-game abilities which could be considered bugs necessary for it to be a usable game - see my recent "Please make this a better game" post. Or just plain more fun and not boring/work (the sign of a game design problem).

There was too much cheese potential in having teh ability to move your ships right next to the enemy vessels. So its only disabled when there are enemy units in the system.

There are 10 types of people in the world:

Those that understand binary, and those that don't.

There is,
vehicleSizes.txt
Space Combat Maximum Speed Per Movement Point := 0.001
this is how that code works, my ship moves 12 sectors a turn, so it gets 12 combat speed, by increasing the value to
Space Combat Maximum Speed Per Movement Point := 0.002
it gets 24 in combat

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