I would like to be able to select 3 cards before hitting auto in battle. This would fix my choice of cards to those 3 cards for this battle and the simulation would take these into account.

If fighting an enemy player, then if they chose manual they could select their cards as normal and my cards would be the ones I chose (I still don't see the battle, or get to get change my cards)



I find it frustrating to have to sit through a very long combat just so I can choose a card, often when I already know I am going to win (such as a repair card, or the save your ships when the blow up card)



In multiplayer games especially, combat can be quite long and you can win battles you would not normally do so by using cards, however because of how long it takes if I often find myself hitting auto just to make sure the game is kept moving.



The 3 card slots could just appear on the left of the combat alert GUI, just like they are on the combat GUI.



Choosing combat cards in real time would still have a use, as you can react to how the battle is going, or if you want to see an epic space battle.



This should in general make multiplayer games much quicker.

Agreed, I would like this.



If you don't choose any cards, the AI chooses them for you, but if you do, then those ones get used.

This and variants have in principle been suggested here: /#/endless-space/forum/28-game-design/thread/12547-combat-fast-forward (see the linklist at the end)

This thread has been linked to the former and is moved to the archives.