[Varyon]

When reality doesn't cooperate, often the best solution is to change reality. Specifically, magic/superscience. In my (work-in-hiatus) Harpyias setting, the boost drives (drives that instantly accelerate to whatever velocity you want, within the maximum) used for travel produce pseudovelocity (no kinetic energy) unless within a certain range of another (hostile) drive or a planet, at which point they switch to producing real velocity, but are reduced to roughly WWII fighter plane performance (including functioning as though they are in an atmosphere). They have force fields that make it impossible for unguided or AI-guided missiles to get through, but if the missile has a human dedicated to guiding it, it's sometimes possible to slip through (and pilots/gunners can train to split their attention well enough to be able to both fly and guide one or two missiles). The energy weapons in use have better performance against the shields, but you typically need a precisely-aimed shot - and a lot of luck - to slip past the shield and one-shot an enemy craft, and even then that's really only going to work on a smaller ship. The shield technology also passively strengthens the ships so that even from within, you'd need a lot of firepower to take down a capital ship. The whole paradigm is meant to allow for close-range dogfights, boarding action of capital ships, etc.