Well I finally got sick of the campaign churning out blatantly unfair missions. Often due to it not knowing the difference between a capital ship such as a Bintak and a cruiser such as a Th'nor. So I finally bit the bullet and decided to sort the problems out. It was more trouble than I bargained for and resulted in another big overhaul of the way missions are generated. The result is something that is fairer and more flexible. For instance the most generic mission in the campaign "Chance Engagement" which I was using as the test bed will now generate missions in which teams sometimes mainly comprise of fighters, sometimes of cruisers, but the total effective fighting strengths of the opposing teams will always be in the same ball park. Excepting any penalties incurred because the enemy has many more remaining ships, and those due to skill level (less enemy ships are now present in any mission when you play on easier difficulty settings).
This is nice stuff and hasn't really bloated the SEXP usage that badly. It does mean I have to go through all the missoins again though and update them. Hopefully this will be the last time and I'll have it done before MAG returns. Things are coming together though very quicky.