I've used the self-destruct SEXP to get rid of unwanted ships, as they meant to be in the cutscene.
Did I misunderstood what you wrote there- if the ships shouldn't be present, why not just delete them in FRED? In case you meant removing ships that should be present in the cutscene but not in the playing-part of the mission, ship-vanish SEXP is a better alternative.
I agree with you.
Wasn't it established not too long ago that you'd be leaving ME out of SS?
Yeah, because ME, which bombed badly at the box office (which means no sequels and games besides SS planned), is mostly a self-contained event takes place at a local event, in this case, Earth, but not outside the planet itself. So when you think through the wider scope of the ME universe that includes anything beyond Earth orbit, you know you are totally mistaken. Always has been. Shattered Stars: A Deepness Within takes place exclusively in the same universe as ME, but also the 2004 BSG TV universe. Maybe I'll explain in a diagram, perhaps?
In that case here if you are wondering:
The last scene of the ME film has Tom Natsworthy and Hester Shaw flying off into the sky aboard the deceased comrade Anna Fang's airship, the Jenny Haniver. From that point, something catastrophic happens, something tragic must have happened to them. They died, either by the hands of the PVN and the UIMS, who wage war against each other.
Also I've actually tried playing through the new update of your mod, it crashed halfway through the briefing.
EDIT 2: Gave it another go, it works now but I'm still suffering performance issues.
Yeah, it may be related to either the builds or the graphic cards issues, similar to the one I am having all this time. Mine is the outdated ATI Radeon 5670 HD, and its vendor stopped updating its drivers long ago since Windows 10 was introduced. But I think it's mostly the driver issue and this is something that you've already amiss.