From experience I know players like to know the aim behind the game mechanics, so that they can poke holes in the design but with a knowledge of the ultimate aim. If that isn't you then ignore this page!
All war is about getting more power to a point at the right time, and applying it in overwhelming numbers. This can be troops, bombs, artillary or whatever. In a space game this could either be ships or weaponry.
A problem with overwhelming power is that it becomes very obvious to the recipient that they are about to lose and there is nothing they can do. This is fine providing that planning works:
Players also enjoy having high prestege units in game. These have a history, and as a result of this history are better than others. This is experience in most games, or possibly high cost units. In RipSpace this game mechanic is DarkLight. The issue with experience is that it has to be capped, and the same is true of DarkLight. Which leads to the next point.
If an army/ship whatever is going to get destroyed then it is good if this is down to the players own choices. So, players design their ships, and during combat they can increase performance using DarkLight. This provides all the diversity of a large tech tree than many games have, but avoids the many pages of specification and design that such massive tech trees need. In RipSpace your drones performance is a direct result of the drone racks allocated and the DarkLight that you spend. One player may swarm with many low powered drones, while another may favour infrequent but high powered drones.
People are all different. A good game lets you differentiate your play from others. In RipSpace your ship designs are unique, and the combination of ships you field in small fleet engagements is also unique. Also, no other player will get a full scan of your ship - so your successful design is hidden, unless your play is carefully studied they will not know the design in full.
Ship visibility is tricky. Players give away their position the instant they launch a drone. But a drone can only target a ship if the ship is illuminated by a beholder, or by being noisy. This means that a game will have phases - initially ships will know where each other are, but only briefly. After a while the system will be mostly lite up with beholders and the game will become more of a slogging match. This should mean that fights do not go on forever, as the areas to hide in will get smaller and smaller.
This also creates discovery within each combat - discovery is fun, and again creates an arena for different playing styles.
All of life is about moments of cusp. Those times when you either slip from health, or get better. Or recover from a stumble, or fall out the window. Repair is for those ships who make it. This means that repair in combat has to be possible, but only through very strange ship design is it really successful. For most ships the repairs will only be in periods of calm. Or when mandatory to establish control of cutoff regions of the ship.
This means that damage control has to be possible, but should a ship be under constant attack it should not be able to repair as fast as it is damaged - this makes for a pointless and dull combat. This is also the reason for nano combat to cause explosions on a ship - the single random element of combat is how many units are caught in the explosion.
This was the hardest part of the game to finish. It is pretty much down to the beta testers that we have RipCurrents and the economy in it's current form. I was totally stumped until they blasted their ideas at me. The Galactic is where the empire builders can have fun - seeing where enemy empires are, directing their RipCurrents and generally trying to grow and grow and grow. For smaller scale pirate fleets the galactic can remain pretty irrelevant. But empire builders will watch it avidly.
Being a dad, and having a day job I'm very aware of time pressure. All my games are designed to use your time well, never do ships have to sit about mining, or travel vast distances to simply buy something. A ship should always have the option to be in battle if thats what you want. There should be no dull moments, those are for real life.
Players take breaks - some every weekend. There should be a simply way to prepare your forces for a break without you losing all your hard won power. Moving ships from the solar plane to the galactic one gives them a safe haven. It will cost DarkLight which is annoying, but never will you lose a ship simply because you have to be away from the game for a period.