Are missiles going to be "balanced" or rather are other weapon types going to become more useful in more situations?
I think that railguns should have unlimited range but should be dependent on how advanced your fire control computer is to determine how far away it can shoot accurately. Speed, distance and tonnage should play a role in how accurate the shot is, so at 1 million KM it can shoot a 1000 ton vessel going <500 KM/s at 100% accuracy etc. This would be a low end computer, I believe that beam weapons should be feasible from farther away, with a super advanced fire control being able to fire at a target accurately
I'll also reiterate my idea about being able to size up beam weapon components like you can sensors with tech advancements making them more efficient, not larger.
I would really like for some changes in this direction. To make missiles less the "I WIN BUTTON" they are right now.
It makes for a boring situation. I do limit their usage a LOT by my own choice but still, it would be better if other weapons were more viable.
I think the main problem lies in how hard to intercept they are, and especially how there is no defense against missiles launched from within the 5-seconds range. And how it's hard to defend against boxed launchers. It is a limitation of the engine, because the shortest possible interval is 5 seconds. I understand that.
But it DOES make missiles extremely unbalanced.
This has been suggested many times, but beam weapons range is hard locked by the speed of light. Honestly, from a realism point of view they're probably excessive as is; even with a laser shooting a dodging target when the beam takes 5 seconds to arrive is going to be effectively impossible. No level of advanced computer is going to be able to predict random movement.
The problem is not really the range, but rather the 5-second interval which does not allow beam weapons to shoot at incoming missile targets multiple times. Like it should be possible to do instead. Maybe with a specifically built version, but it should be possible
Also, a very important thing which is not modeled by the game right now. Weapons like railguns have effectively an infinite range, because the bullet keeps going in the void. So, I should theorically be able to use them to hit stationary targets from infinite distance.
There is no logical nor physical reason for which I can't use a railgun to shoot your immobile sorium harvesters from the other side of the system. Same goes for your orbital stations in a a geostationary orbit, or your shipyards. Just calculate the trajectory, and I should be able to shoot them from the other side of the solar system. Or at least, from very very far away. Because, you know, they do NOT move.