Tactical combat

Ships that turn away from combat either have Don't get Hurt orders or they are out of ammo or supplies. I think the next patch will fix the endless chasing of ships. Look at the 1.12 change log post.

You can slow the speed of the combat way down and that will help to keep track of everything. I normally let the AI handle most of the battle and only take direct control of special ships and fighters. I like to take control of fighters because they are fast and can chase down the fleeing ships.

As a last resort, go into sector view and place your ships right next to the enemy ships before starting combat.

about cloaking: cloaked ships cannot start combat, you have to decloak before you attack.

about ai controll in combat: normaly every ship and unit is controlled by the ai when the combat starts, so if you don´t do anything and just let the battle start they should all engage automaticaly (if they have supplies). if this doesn´t happen you should check the standard orders you gave them in the fleet or in the ship-design (you can choos a standard tactic at ship-design).

when in combat on the bottem right there is a button for "view orders" (or something like that), there you can check or uncheck the options if the ai shall controll moving and/or shooting.

hope this helps a bit.

Prankowski