Moving Spelljammer ships and navy ships

I am starting a campaign using Spelljammer themed around visiting multiple settings. I have seen reference to the grouping method, I am just wondering if you guys can give me some advice on doing "moving ships" of various sizes. I plan to have ship movement be a critical part of their ship-related combat encounters, and positioning their vessel will be key. I have seen that it can get tricky, I'm just wondering if you guys have any tips, and, or ideas on how to go about handling this.

Do you need to have all of the maneuvering done while tokens are on deck, or does position only matter once ships are close? If the latter, you can use a small inset map with tiny ship tokens and only go to character miniatures once it becomes important.

I was hoping to be able to take advantage of lots of moving platforms and areas in combat, and also leaning into the idea that the ship *never* stops moving until anchored. So to be precise, I would very strongly prefer the former if it is at all possible. I do plan to use very large vessels and very small vessels and...pretty much everything in between. Asteroids, giant creatures that *are* walkable terrain, really leaning into that "otherworldly voyage" type deal.

While I have your attention, is there any way to work in "automated floating islands" as an element? What I mean specifically is I want to have smaller rocks that are maybe on a timer or something, and will move on a pre-set route so that I don't have to re-position them manually all the time. 

There is a Patrol script here that you could look at. I've never used it.

The Patrol script works well, but is a hungry hungry hippo with resources for players, you would need a pro-level game creator to use API scripts. 

I do plan to buy the pro very soon, so don't worry too much about that. If you have any tips on how to best employ this script, and maybe any "not-a-code-guy" friendly advice, and, or resources, walkthroughs, etc. Please do not hesitate to provide them, I will need all the help I can get with this one. Thank you very much by the way guys, I appreciate it. Also, for note, I am using roll20 in this game as an IRL support presentation resource type deal. If the players will experience lag and such, or other difficulties with software, that can be managed. I just really want to give these guys a strong presentation of the feeling I'm going for: wonder, and adventure.

As a quick aside, for those interested, here's the link to the reddit thread for the campaign I'm putting together. <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/spelljammer/comments/fbroq0/the_spherebound_voyageurs_a_custom_5e_adventure/" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/r/spelljammer/comments/fbroq0/the_spherebound_voyageurs_a_custom_5e_adventure/</a> All comers welcome.

Something I have done that may be useful for this sort of thing.&nbsp; Make a relatively large map, and then (once you have a plus/pro subscription) split the map with dynamic lighting.&nbsp; The main portion of the map is for ship movement.&nbsp; The smaller section of the map is a close up view of of the ship, with enough room to show another ship or 2 once they are close enough for potential boarding assaults and individual combat.&nbsp; I set the measurement grid to normal battlefield scale for the boarding part of the map, and then just multiply that by 5 or 10 for the larger portion of the map for long range attacks and maneuvering. At least, this is what I have done with regular ships.

That is an excellent idea, and I think I will do just that for some sections. The only complication I can see as a possibility is when they go to ram and board something, but that can be handled easily enough with previously prepared "boarding maps" for the ships by type. I think I will be doing just that, thank you very much Kraynic. I'll supplement those sections with some pure sailing sections with the patrol script. All this said, if anybody has any other ideas or other ways you've handled this, or would handle this, I'm open to discussion and suggestion. Particularly things that can help take advantage of the unique mechanics of Spelljammer's travel.

Ha! Kraynic's suggestion was basically my original one, but much better stated.