I was just thinking, the challenges are not all that great for two reasons:
one, if you put up a challenge someone always knows a counter to it.
and two, its just not the same as being able to trash-talk your enemy and saying hopefull comments to your oppenent about that one cruiser thats taking a beating.
There are plenty of other reasons too im sure, but i cant think of any other major ones.
The nice thing about Gratuitous space battles is (at least i think) it wouldnt need much server requirements, since once the battle starts neither players are giving orders or things of the sort. There just has to be a chat-line between them.
At least in theory, this sounds easy. Im no computer programmer but it couldnt be all that hard. Im sure people would gladly make their computer a server volunteer.
Agreements? Disagreements? Angry mafia members?