Shadowwell wrote:The World Capitalist Confederation wrote:The weird thing about soft SF is people overdusing lasers. Why not just wear a thin layer of glass to deflect the lasers or put reflective coatings on your ships.
Also large ships are very tactically stupid, since even marine ships got scaled down since we figured out it's bad idea. It has lots of guns, sure , and more volume for less material, but it's a much larger target.
A, focused light can sometimes melt glass and burn through mirrored surfaces.
B. despite their general power requirement Lasers have among the greatest viable accurate range depending. Besides, lasers/energy weapons are widely thought of as being the typical sci fi weapons. Kinetic weaponry might be more realistic, but Sci Fi is fiction, fiction rooted in science but fiction nonetheless.
Large ships might be tactically stupid as you say, but their might be more behind their creation than just tactical viability. Size of the ship would/could also be dependent on the power generation and weapons in use. Also depends upon the race/species using them, for example, the Weseh male can range in size between 8-10 feet in height, so they would not be able to fit on the size of ships your Armonians would use. One species/race i typically use are Insectoids/Arthropoids who make use of biological technology and literally grow their ships.
Many people might adhere less to realism for the roleplay and storytelling possibilities.
My opinion is most things we imagine or think of could perhaps work. Just we as we currently are cannot conceive how they would though.
A. Reinforce the glass with steel which absorbs the physical shock of the light.
B. *Whips out a machine gun with 50,000rpm* The thing with kinetic weapons is that only armour can stop them, and that reduces your speed, so...