You mean like, you click a button, and you get thrown into a battle with randomly generated ships and objectives?
well, that, and was also thinking along th lines of how CFS2 does it, except better.
IE, you would select what type of battle, what environment, the species of each side, and any special requirements, like specify to include an extra cruiser into the mix, etc. all other options are affected by this screen
the next screen would determine exactly how many enemy fighters and bombers you want, their AI level, ship type, loadout, and rough starting position. each of thse CAN (doesn't have to) be arranged on a wing-to-wing basis
after that you select the same option for friendlies.
you can randomize any of the options. after the third screen, you hit a button, and off you go wait a miute or so for the comp to generate the mission, and go kick some ass. something would probably have to be done to make it not last 5 seconds though.
this would require a lot of coding, and so my OTHER idea is just to have a HUGE variety of missions in the tech base, and have some ridiculisly complicated naming system.
Wobble's idea can also be implemented. maybe we can even let the build have plugins so you ca add more ships easily.