I would really enjoy being able to bump the game speed up to something like 10 times normal speed.
I enjoy watching space battles as much as the next guy, but when I am testing minor ship changes, things can get a little tedious at 4x. This is especially true when testing slow cruisers on a large map 
I agree. 4x takes a while when your just trying to see a little thing.
Here’s another vote for a higher limit than 4x, for pretty much the same reasons. Big maps + slow ships = long wait time, even on 4x.
This suggestion makes me think about the idea of having combat done completely without gfx (as an option).