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[ToonyMan]

Any kind of meaningfull combat will have to be knife range unless you're firing at something with a predictable course/speed or something which is motionless relative to you.

Somebody is way too optimistic for the sci fi novels were hand to hand combat is still the way of heros.

His term of knife-range being relative. In this case, knife-range means hundreds of thousands of miles.

Long-range knifing Duke.  With a scope.

[Duke 2.0]

 When it comes to space combat there are only three important ranges. Outside of sensor range, within sensor range, and within firing range. Sensor range is absurdly large, and depending on if you are using a general sky-sweeping sensor for changes in UV heat signals from ship exhaust or very narrow-view telescopes to peer into the deepest parts of space the range could be the edge of several solar systems. Basically if you are within the solar neighborhood of another ship you will know about it.
 Then there is the effective firing range. This is also sort of variable, as self-guided missiles would be most practical. By autocorrecting their course they avoid the issues with lasers and long distances. Then there is the issues of those lasers shooting down the missiles. So really, the only effective range is within laser distance of eachother. I don't know how much of a distance away minimizes the issues with light being too slow, but it is within the theoretical 'knifing distance' that is relatively small compared to traveling distances.

[forsaken1111]

Any kind of meaningfull combat will have to be knife range unless you're firing at something with a predictable course/speed or something which is motionless relative to you.

Somebody is way too optimistic for the sci fi novels were hand to hand combat is still the way of heros.

Knife range for spaceships. Not physical knives. Jeeze read my mind like everyone else!

[Max White]

only three important ranges.

I think your three will be the least important ones.

[Duke 2.0]

 While a global network for various craft would be very effective and useful, I'm rather sure when traveling through the dark void of space we would invest in security that would prevent oxygen from being vented into space. I'm rather sure you can't hack a modern sub, so whatever.

[Max White]

You can, it's just that it would take a lot more effort then you would get reward. A lot more effort. In some cases to the level were you would need to scuba dive down there and plug in your own dongle.

[Duke 2.0]

 When you have equipment that can detect all jet exhaust plumes left behind from the wake of any engine that can get you any distance in space effectively, I'm thinking the only way to hack a spaceship would be without any physical contact. If a dongle is required then the idea is sort of invalidated.

[Johnfalcon99977]

I think spaceship to spaceship warfare will include firing super-heated peices of plasma at other ships (It can be done!). Missles will have to be ruled out because the boom would require oyxgen. I have heard of Railguns, but I do not have enough proof to support that so I will not try. Hacking ships controls will be, in all likelyhood, a major killer. Also light sabers are impossible, but you can mail super heated plasma and give em' a good scorching like that.

Traveling a superhigh speeds will be a problem, seeing as the speed of light is impossible and warpholes are way too small.

[forsaken1111]

I think spaceship to spaceship warfare will include firing super-heated peices of plasma at other ships (It can be done!). Missles will have to be ruled out because the boom would require oyxgen. I have heard of Railguns, but I do not have enough proof to support that so I will not try. Hacking ships controls will be, in all likelyhood, a major killer. Also light sabers are impossible, but you can mail super heated plasma and give em' a good scorching like that.

Traveling a superhigh speeds will be a problem, seeing as the speed of light is impossible and warpholes are way too small.

I can only assume this post is a joke, or you're incredibly ignorant.

[Johnfalcon99977]

I think spaceship to spaceship warfare will include firing super-heated peices of plasma at other ships (It can be done!). Missles will have to be ruled out because the boom would require oyxgen. I have heard of Railguns, but I do not have enough proof to support that so I will not try. Hacking ships controls will be, in all likelyhood, a major killer. Also light sabers are impossible, but you can mail super heated plasma and give em' a good scorching like that.

Traveling a superhigh speeds will be a problem, seeing as the speed of light is impossible and warpholes are way too small.

I can only assume this post is a joke, or you're incredibly ignorant.

I am not joking at all. In fact, I am dead serious. These are real facts. Super Heated plasma is extremely hot, enough to melt through titanum and raw steel.

Lightspeed travel is also impossible. Its a common fact.

[Fossaman]

Missles will have to be ruled out because the boom would require oyxgen.

Explosives have always included their own oxidizer, ever since gunpowder. Same goes for rocket propellants. No external oxygen required. There's no reason why missiles wouldn't work in space, although you'd have problems using anything but contact warheads or shrapnel warheads.

[Johnfalcon99977]

Missles will have to be ruled out because the boom would require oyxgen.

Explosives have always included their own oxidizer, ever since gunpowder. Same goes for rocket propellants. No external oxygen required. There's no reason why missiles wouldn't work in space, although you'd have problems using anything but contact warheads or shrapnel warheads.

Even if there were explostions in space, they would be a lot less cool then in the movies. We would not get the earth shattering "ka-booms" like in starwars, in all likely hood they would be very small.

[forsaken1111]

I am not joking at all. In fact, I am dead serious. These are real facts. Super Heated plasma is extremely hot, enough to melt through titanum and raw steel.

Lightspeed travel is also impossible. Its a common fact.

Oh ok, so we'll do this one at a time.

I think spaceship to spaceship warfare will include firing super-heated peices of plasma at other ships (It can be done!).

Enlighten me as to how one fires a 'piece' of plasma. I'm not saying it can't be done, but I've heard of no experiments regarding the controlled emission of weaponized plasma.

Missles will have to be ruled out because the boom would require oyxgen.

Okay, first... many explosive chemicals can burn or react without the presence of atmospheric oxygen. Some of them have the oxygen in the substance itself. We even include the oxygen with rocket fuel so that it can burn in space, as far as I know. That aside, why would we use chemical explosives at all? I would go with a fission or fusion based reaction in missiles myself. We already have the technology to do both.

I have heard of Railguns, but I do not have enough proof to support that so I will not try.

I touched on 'railguns' (i.e. kinetic weaponry) earlier. Beyond a certain (fairly short) range, a kinetic kill vehicle is simply too inaccurate to be useful. It generally has none of the in-flight course correction or guidance which makes missiles a useful weapon. The target will simply drift out of position before your shell arrives, even if it doesn't know it's been fired upon. This is compounded by the difficulties of light-speed limited sensors such as radar.

Hacking ships controls will be, in all likelyhood, a major killer.

I really don't see how. Ruling out actual sabotage, as in an infiltrator placed there to disable the ship, the only way to 'hack' a ship's controls would be to establish a connection with its computer system. This is easily preventable, as one could simply turn wireless input OFF during combat except for very specific frequencies, and on those frequencies one could accept only telemetry or voice/visual data from allied spacecraft. Even that could be shut down should it become apparent that an attack is being attempted through them.

With wireless input off your only other option is a physical connection. If you can get inside the ship to connect to the computer, you may as well plant a bomb.

Also light sabers are impossible, but you can mail super heated plasma and give em' a good scorching like that.

Traveling a superhigh speeds will be a problem, seeing as the speed of light is impossible and warpholes are way too small.

I'm not even sure what to make of these two sentences. They make no sense at all. What is a warphole?

[Urist is dead tome]

Super heated plasma is extremely hot.

A warp hole is a matter of science fiction. Nothing more. Barely mentioned anywhere. The closest thing to a warp hole would either be a black hole or a quasar. And I believe that both compress thing into singularities. Killing everyone.

[Burnt Pies]

Maybe Nuclear Missiles in space? Or Missiles which just get reasonably close to enemies then explode into LASERS AND KILL EVERYTHING NEARBY.

I've not looked at any science. I just want Laser Missiles.