so if my ship 'hits' another player, I lose an action and can't attack the ship I'm touching, right?

If the ship I'm touching moves away so we're no longer overlapping, can I then fire at him, or is it off limits because I ran into him?

And if I run into him, is he also blocked from attacking me? If he is, is he still blocked after he moves away?

I got into a pretty heavy discussion with someone about this last night, and I don't know who was right or wrong, I just know that only one of us still has a mustache.

Thanks in advance.

ship that are touching can not attack each other. if the other moves away you are not touching each other therefore you can both fire. see overlapping ships in rule reference page 15 of latest rule book

Keep in mind too that an overlap only causes you to skip your Perform Action step for that activation (the action you get to take after completing a maneuver). If some other affect later on allows you to perform an action, overlapping does not prevent this.

1. so if my ship 'hits' another player, I lose an action and can't attack the ship I'm touching, right?

2. If the ship I'm touching moves away so we're no longer overlapping, can I then fire at him, or is it off limits because I ran into him?

3. And if I run into him, is he also blocked from attacking me? If he is, is he still blocked after he moves away?

1. Skip your action phase. May get actions from something else but you did effectively "lose an action" unless you couldn't take one anyway; perhaps you already too one using Advanced Sensors. Ships involved in a current overlap generally can not attack each other.

2. No longer touching? Then generally you are no longer prevented from attacking.

3. As long as you are touching due to an overlap situation neither ship can generally attack the other. If you overlap a ship and then that ship later moves away it can potentially attack you and get its action.