[Spaceships] Combat Examples?

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by apoc527

This isn't even an unrealistic or superscience-required idea, either IMO. If you can make lasers and AIs, you can make super accurate point defense lasers. If you can do that, you can probably make highly effective tracking radars. If you can do both, you can probably very accurately predict which pieces of weapon will impact you and which will not. Vaporize accordingly. Stand-off weapons bypass this level of effective close-in defense because (1) they don't need to impact and thus any of them can be dangerous, and (2) the point defense lasers lose power with range, probably fairly rapidly, if they are small and designed to engage only targets that will collide.

Of course, if you take the 'close defense guns are just that good' angle, it has implications that propagate to other parts of the setting. Mixing this with riflemen who look like they stepped out of 2015 except maybe their rifles shoot something special isn't a bit dubious for plausibility.

Light lag can also help standoff warheads. Decoys might. (ECM seems dubious since simple telescopic spotting is more likely than radar and probably can't be dazzled effectively.)

Laser fall-off, well, bigger lasers with more range are always possible...and may be present as part of the ships' offensive battery.