Is spaceship armor useless?

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Is there anything in particular that breaks down from sliding the scale other than multiple-projectile-handling-rules? Hexes become bigger, velocities and accelerations in hexes are adjusted, and everything else seems fine, as long as you use the right scale (e.g. do not use a 10,000-mile hex if your enemies need to shoot from 5 miles at you half the time). In-ship movement and repairs might be better handled slightly differently, but they don't look tragically broken compared to beams/missile/dodges.

From SS1, there's the weird thing where the amount of thrust required to not count as unpowered varies by orders of magnitude depending on the scale. In SS3, there's the curious consequences of what the minimum non-zero range is. (For instance, in 10m/20s, you are fairly likely to get to shoot at a (non-fragmented) missile at closer than the point defense baseline range. On 10,000 mile hexes, you need a 3 MJ UV laser to be able to reach out of your own space at all!)

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Space is big, but something may force closer encounters - engine, weapon, or other similar parameters. Plus there's the offence/defence ratios, be they accuracy/dodge or damage/DR/HP, and they change many things.

It'd have to be something very, very big to force the kind of closer encounters you see in the wooshy genre, and it would usually have to be something you grafted on to the setting to justify it.