Tactical Analysis

Since I just registered the domain name fleetcombat.net, I was searching around to see other uses of the phrase and came across this series of blog entries from someone doing a thought exercise on the practical issues of space fleet combat.

They are pretty interesting, and the same sort of things that I have been thinking about since I decided to develop this simulation. Basically, given what we know about physics today, what is likely to happen in space combat (guided missiles, conventional guns, long ranges) and what is not (transporters, shields, beam weapons, etc.).

I really want the game to have a realistic feel of what space combat would be like, and the author of these articles reaches a lot of the same conclusions that I have. Beam weapons, while possible using today's technology are really not very practical for long ranges or against hardened targets. They take incredible amounts of energy to fire. Creating that much energy creates an enormous amount of heat -- possibly creating more heat on board your ship than would be applied to the target when the beam hits them.

So I have been developing Fleet Combat mostly around projectile weapons with the idea of using beam weapons for "point defense" against incoming missiles. This puts a premium on maneuvering, spoofing, and countering rather than who has the stronger shields and more phaser banks.