Infinite Dark - Design Blog 6 - Logic, Vision and Toys (Patreon)

I came across this excellent interview with naval analyst and sci-fi enthusiast Chris Weuve about common sci-fi tropes in space combat and what they get right and wrong:

https://foreignpolicy.com/2012/09/28/aircraft-carriers-in-space/

It's a great summary of my dichotomy. On the one hand, I want the game to have that "hard SF" feel to it that would make it sit well in the Horizon Wars setting. And I want it to stand out as a concept from other pulp settings.

On the other hand, I also want people to be able to use their existing spaceship collections and to buy minis from manufacturers who are already invested in the more pulp-y settings. Also, I want it to be a fun game rather than a patient fight of long-distance assassination.

Of course, this is partly why the setting is Era 4, not Era 2 or 3. Eras 2 and 3 are firmly in the realm of the conceivably possible, and my early plans for space combat in this period were abandoned because the kind of patient, super long-distance hunting described by Weuve was exactly the nature of space combat in these eras and it was pretty dull and boiled down to who had the better sensors.

In Era 4, though, we're firmly into the realm of "probably impossible". This gives me a little more leeway in ship design, movement and fire.

But Era 4 makes space fighters less logical, and carriers even less so. So should I treat them like mechs in HW (improbable but fun)?