Realistic space war building? (slrpnk.net)

submitted 5 months ago by absurde@slrpnk.net to c/worldbuilding@lemmy.world

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Hi! I'm currently building a hard sci-fi world and I was wondering about the idea of war. Because space is huge - really huge, and most ships probably won't interact with each other for years or centuries. But if two space ships or fleets were to meet on a new stellar system and declare war to each other, what could this look like? What weapons could they use?

Have you ever tackled the subject in one of your worlds? Or do you know a piece of media which did this?

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[-] absurde@slrpnk.net 1 points 5 months ago

Would that render kinetic weapons pretty much impracticable for a spaceship-to-spaceship war?

[-] Blaster_M@lemmy.world 1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

And that's why lasers are the king of range. However, they can be a nuisance at a distance more than a threat, as they are easier to defeat with the right armor setup.

That said, the big thing with kinetics is your effective range shrinks substantially, but it is much harder to defend against reliably. The way to use kinetics is get close, take advantage of enemy weakspots.