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Getting ready to run this again for a second time on Saturday, so rereading the CSS encounter and notice I missed the first time that the gyrolaser has agile. I hadn't thought about a threat routine getting MAP the first time I ran this, and it's not calculated into the strike bonuses. Considering how delayed this counter is, applying MAP seems reasonable.
First time I ran this, the PC's ship was destroyed would have been destroyed by the first attack, if I had on the fly applied the easer adjustment to avoid a crit hit.
It's still possible to destroy the PC's ship in one round even if you apply the easer adjustment. To do so, you need near maximum damage from the plasma cannon, and then hitting with the gyrolaser at all will finish off the PC's ship.
I like this encounter being so deadly; starship combat in SF1e almost never felt like the party was at risk, because losing meant a TPK or ending the scenario. I love that this scenario accounts for the PC's ship getting destroyed and that it doesn't end the scenario there. With a bit of luck, if the PC wins this battle, it will be well earned; if they lose the ship, then they have a recurring reason to get revenge on the Corpse Fleet. Setting that up the first time we use CSS in organized play seems like a good idea to me. I have an SF1e character that has a boon with 20 or 30 nuclear missiles, which they have been saving and will only use against the Corpse Fleet or the Swarm.
But I do agree that getting destroyed on the first attack is not fun. So, trying to follow the Organized Prime Directive while looking for ways to avoid that.
GM Discretion
As a Starfinder Society GM, you have the right and responsibility to make whatever judgments you feel are necessary—within the rules—to ensure everyone has a fair and fun experience at your table.
Here are my ideas on how to deal with not destroying the PC's ship to early.
1: First attack with the plasma cannon have an asteroid gets in the way, saving the PC's ship. Having the plasma destroy an asteroid the size of the PCs' ship is a good way of letting them know how dangerous it is, and reminding them that there are crew actions to avoid that attack. This doesn't increase or decrease the difficulty; the PCs could still get one-shotted later, this just lets the encounter happen at all, which to me falls under "ensure everyone has a fair and fun experience at your table."
2: First round or 2 use the plasma cannon, after the gyrolaser applying -5 MAP to it. Doing this, you need a nat 20 to crit or a 19 if the PC's ship is off guard. If the plasma cannon misses, have it hit an asteroid like above to show how dangerous it is.
3: The risk of oneshot destroying the PC's ship is real, and might justify dropping the fatal d12 altogether, or just for the first round or two. I like having the option of the fatal d12 it keeps the encounter from going on forever. The longest SF1e starship combat I was in lasted over 6 weeks in a play-by-post, so I'm more than willing to blow up the PC's ship to avoid that.
These options kind of give the players a lower-risk practice round to learn their crew roles.
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Other than the issue above, I found this encounter really interesting, the combination of asteroids and attacking ship, and the crew's actions to avoid both of them was interesting. The PC's finaly won the battle in round 5. Next time I run this, I will be spending more time making sure the Players know their roles and why some of them are important. I had to remind the players that swapping crew roles is an option and point out using your 3rd action to aid others. I should have done that earlier.
Not related to the encounter but CSS in general, more 1 action actions would give the players more options. Half my players never used their 3rd action to aid others.
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CSS doesn't use maps, but that's not stopping me from using one. The PC's are in an explorer-class ship, and the Corpse Fleet has a Destroyer, so I'm using a Victory Class Star Destroyer from Armada and using some of the smaller ships in Armada to thet PC's ship and the shipwreck they explore. I'll also be adding astroed tokens and moving them depending on their die rolls to avoid them to give a sense of danger to justify blowing up their ship if it happens.
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Can't comment on the rest of the scenario yet; it's still an ongoing play-by-post game.
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I got a starfield map out and put the ships on it and some asteroid tokens. For the river between, I used gas cloud tokens. As the Corpse Fleet ship gets Quagmire Points, I can move the gas tokens to the corpse ship to show progress and show it's having an effect.
The first time I ran this, the party didn't have a gunner. Two of the crew had actions that could give Quagmire Points, but only one player used that action. I'm hoping, actually, that having a visual effect of the Quagmire Points might make it look like a more worthwhile action to take. I'm thinking of letting the PCs use their 3rd action to scan or recall knowledge to learn what the effects of using the river against the Corpse Fleet Ship are.