1. I've taken a look through the book, and although the book does mention that accelerate/decelerate and fly/drive are two separate things, to me they seem to be two parts of the same thing. A/D is to make the ship speed faster, so to me it says that ships move each turn or round, however that is what the book describes F/D to be. Basically, if Ship A is going 1 speed faster than Ship B, will Ship A catch up with Ship B anyway, or does the F/D maneuver make it get closer?

Personally, I like to use a grid so I can keep track on distances and range bands. If Ship A is 3 squares behind Ship B and is at a speed of 3, would the maneuver be spent on moving the ship forward 3 spaces (into the close range band), or would it move forward 3 spaces anyway and I'd have the maneuver spot still free to do something?

2. I can't find anything on shields. I've looked up online but what I have found has been very muddled. What advantages do shields give? Is it added to armor and works like soak value, or (as I believe somewhere said) does it add a d6 to the opponents difficulty per shield level?

Fly drive is required for ship A to change range bands in relation to ship B. Ships do not have to fly/drive each round, they can conduct other maneuvers and actions whithout changing range bands, this does not mean they are sitting dead in space, just that they are not maneuvering in such a way to close the distance between each other.

Throw away the grid, the system isn't designed to support it and it will just confuse you. There are radar style maps the community has made that are better suited.

Shields are called "Defenses" in the vehicle stat block, they apply a setback die per rating value if the shot is set to hit that defensive arc. They can be moved using the angle the deflector maneuver.

Could you link me to the community radar?

The part about shields is on page 226 of the CRB but it's not called 'shields'. That's what threw me originally as well. It's just called 'Defense'.

I can't find the space combat image right at the moment but basically it's like a bullseye target with your PCs ship in the middle. Their ship never moves on the map, you just move all the other ships in the encounter towards or away from the center through the various range bands when they move to close or back to short etc.

There's several, but here's the one I could find.

Notice on the right It lists how many fly/drive maneuvers it takes to change range bands at what speed.

Ok, so by looking at the radar, does it mean this?

From Close it will take 1 maneuver at any speed to go to Short.

From Short it will take 2 maneuvers at speed 1, or 1 maneuver at any higher speed to go Close or Medium.

From Medium it will take 2 maneuvers at speed 2-4, or 1 maneuver at speed 5/6 to go to Short or Long.

From Long it will take 2 maneuvers at speed 5/6 to go to Medium or Extreme.

OR

It will take 1 maneuver at any speed to go between Close and Short.

It will take 2 maneuvers at speed 1, or 1 maneuver at any higher speed to go between Short and Medium.

It will take 2 maneuvers at speed 2-4, or 1 maneuver at speed 5/6 to go between Medium and Long.

It will take 2 maneuvers at speed 5/6 to go between Long and Extreme.

(Sorry for over thinking, I'm still struggling to be a little loose and creative with the rules and roleplaying aspects)

I assume these radar style maps use the core rules, in that case check out the FAQ for some clarification on the vehicle movement (page 3).

Try using this table.

| Speed | Close↔Close | Close↔Short | Short↔Med | Med↔Long | Long↔Ext |
|   1   |      1      |      2      |      2    |    2     |     2    |
|  2-4  |      1      |      1      |      1    |    2     |     2    |
|  5-6  |      1      |             1           |    1     |     2    |

For example, at speed 3, to move from Medium range to Close range requires 1+1=2 maneuvers. At speed 5, to move from Medium to Close range requires just 1 maneuver. At speed 5, to move from Long range to Close range requires 1+1=2 maneuvers.

(Sorry for over thinking, I'm still struggling to be a little loose and creative with the rules and roleplaying aspects)

The secret is to unlearn what you have learned. Clear everything from your mind and try reading the chapter with a totally clean slate. If the book doesn't mention it, it doesn't exist. Do only what the book says, nothing more, and it's a good bet you'll have a sudden "ah-ha" moment where ti all suddenly makes sense.