It's realistic, given the premises of the game. The maximum range of beam weapons no matter what is 1. 5 million kilometers, since that's the distance light can travel in 5 seconds. Even there its arguably a stretch, since you have extremely maneuverable and fast starships that could randomly jink enough to throw off targeting solutions.
That is a interesting point that I hadn't thought of. I suppose it's a gameplay vs realism discussion.
Its quite doable, even this early in the game. Are you using a balance of all the beam weapons or are you ust using a main one/two? Also, could you post some of these designs that aren't "working"?
So the game shouldn't have any short range weapons and should only be a long range, slug fest?This has been asked many, many times before and has been shot down as many times. A firecontrol that can reach the current max of 1. 4m km already costs a few thousand resources. And there are reasons for beams to be the ranges they are. SO far this is just asking for a "I win" option that makes it so you can blast anyone from anyrange with a laser.
I didn't keep my designs, but I'll try to whip up a example with current tech. I was mainly focusing on lasers, but I did try gauss on a fighter and my experience was that the 30k range meant that with a follow/move command they were rarely able to stay in range.
For early/mid game beam ships do you end up using missile based PD or can you make effective enough Beam? I have gauss turrets on PD ships as a backup but the turrets weigh in at 30HS and I worry about their effectiveness vs missiles that go 35,000+. -edit: there is the tech for tracking of missiles but does that apply to turret speed as well?
I don't have a issue with short range weapons, any single digit x increase in range would still be minuscule compared to what even a low tech missile can do.
My apologies for asking a similar question. I searched the forums and didn't see anything recent though I did figure others have asked in the past.
If the AI gets the same range increase (again I'm not talking about making it 10m+ just into the low millions), how would that be a I win?
Your post is coming across as mildly hostile so apologies if I offended. Just trying to see the reasoning behind beam ranges and if there are any options for people to be able to customize it.