What would space combat really be like?

[Fishbowl Helmet]

Remote piloting won't work because of the time delay. Until you have communications that can travel faster than light, you're dealing with an increasing delay the farther the remote controlled thing is. It's the same reason why the Mars rovers are simple AI instead of remotes, the signal just takes too long for simple exploration, to say nothing of actual combat.

 

[Kylara]

mmm I suppose, but both sides would be suffering the same sort of delay...again leaving whoever's closest to the UAVs with an advantage, but that would still equate out as a realtime battle - Ship A pilots have a 5 second lag, so 5s to tell UAV, 5s to see result...Ship B pilots also have a 5 second lag, 5s to tell UAV, 5s to see result - so technically they are both seeing the same thing at the same time and responding, yes you have the lag, but the lag would only become noticeable if one of the ships moved farther/closer , giving one side the advantage...

 

[Fishbowl Helmet]

mmm I suppose, but both sides would be suffering the same sort of delay...again leaving whoever's closest to the UAVs with an advantage, but that would still equate out as a realtime battle - Ship A pilots have a 5 second lag, so 5s to tell UAV, 5s to see result...Ship B pilots also have a 5 second lag, 5s to tell UAV, 5s to see result - so technically they are both seeing the same thing at the same time and responding, yes you have the lag, but the lag would only become noticeable if one of the ships moved farther/closer , giving one side the advantage...

Not quite.

Suppose your remotes are 10 light seconds away. It takes 10 seconds for your signal to reach the remote. The signal back from the remote takes another 10 seconds. So any info the pilot would need is 10 seconds away... like where the enemy is. Your remotes are flying around at high speeds trying to kill each other. You can't target something that you only know where it was 20 seconds ago... yes, 20. 10 seconds for the remote's signal to reach the pilot informing him that yes, in fact there's a dirty ******* that needs killing right there, but it also takes another 10 seconds for the pilot's signal that orders the thing to kill that dirty *******.

However far away the remotes are, double that time delay. That's how long it would take the info to reach the pilot from the remote, then the orders to get back to the remote. It's simply an untenable situation for combat. Not because it's hard, or something, because it's literally impossible to pull off. The orders you would give are 2x the distance the remote is away delayed, you don't even know where the target is when you received the info, much less where it would be when the remote receives the order. Add in to that the delay of physical weapons fire needing to traverse the space between the attacker and the defender.

AI drones, maybe. But remotes, not without FTL comm systems. But if you're going to break that bit of physics (FTL signals) why not break physics to get something really cool, like FTL drives. Or lasers that can beat chrispenycate's knowledge of physics.

 

[Kylara]

But both sides would have the time delay...maybe a mixture of AI and remote then? AI drones, but with the possiblity to control what they do...so attack this section here, keep this formation, etc., a little bit like the old Age of Empires game, or Sins of a Solar Empire...they attack stuff on their own, but you can override and tell them "actually no, attack that bigger drone over there"...haha see if I had it my way don't bother with FTL, far too much energy, you just need to figure out a way to construct wormhole, doughnut wormholes and then you are sorted, super fast travel and the option of travelling in time...I was doing a dissertation style project on all that sort of stuff (predictive SF and plausible theories) and there is a lot of maths and stuff backing it up, but I had to drop it due to illness (hah too much stuff, for someone sensitive to stress and panic heh), but I'm sure I could find the papers somewhere...Oh and lasers are awesome, but the right type of laser, like electron beams, and free radicals, now THAT would be a nasty way to die...

 

[Fishbowl Helmet]

As a kid did you ever get into a slap fight where you turned your head away and closed your eyes? It would be like that. Only with missiles. In space. Millions of miles away from you. Sure, you might hit something, but it would be due to pure chance rather than skill or intent. That's not what I'd call a good idea, much less a military strategy.

Hmm... donuts.

 

[Kylara]

haha yeah I suppose...I think I just like the idea of lots of little drones destroying each other while the big ships sit back and watch...
Doughnut wormholes are my favourite, spinning wormholes that make the singularity much larger, should allow for time/space travel if you can build a ship strong enough to survive going through it (a simplified version)...

 

[Toby Frost]

There's a (probably out-of-print) spin-off book entitled The Aliens Technical Manual by Lee Brimmicombe-Wood, which included a lecture on spaceship combat given by a supposed space captain. It comes a cross as rather similar to two submarines trying to sneak up on one another.