Controls..

Realism is ok and everything...but I'd go with the star wars style space physics. Its more fun.

My advice is always know and focus on your target market (please forgive me if you answered this before). If you are going for the hardcore gamer, the person who is looking for complete realism, well you have your answer. What is the size of that market? Are you going for the casual gamer, or perhaps a mix (easy to pickup and learn but deep gameplay) then go with more of the star wars/arcade type. Good luck and I look forward to seeing the final product.

The 'arcade-like' feel has always been a better match for "crank & yank" flight-sim action. Freespace 2 has the best 'feel' for a space game as far as I'm concerned. They basically used the Star Wars model. I grudgingly got past the 'realistic' flight style to play through Tachyon: The Fringe. The game was decent, but I really didn't like how much 'real' physics slowed down the action. For battleship combat, realistic physics seems to make sense. It brings things down to a more strategic pace. For flight-sim I'd suggest arcade.

Quick Q - Are you using the fixed function pipeline or are you using shaders?

Maybe you should design one choice to be the default but allow the other as an option. An alternative idea would be to have some ships/craft use one control and others use the other control. Or the as the player progresses in rank/grade the control goes from gaming/arcade to physics-based. I don't like being locked into a particular control situation. Give me 2 or 3 choices and let me decide.

I would say arcade. In a battle there's already very much going on and a lot of information is relayed to the player. If you throw realistic controls into the mix, you must dumb down in other areas to keep the playability within enjoyment levels. Many games are flawed in that. When someone says relaistic controls to me, I think engine management, inertial dampening, climate control, computer-core upkeep, maintaining stellar maps. It usually means infuriating controls and a basic slider to speed up and slow down, however. It's a major put-off for me.