Sci-fi Writers Guild Forum

Indeed laser cannons are relegated to CQB (within 100000 KM) on my ships, the GUASS cannons, however.... As you said they can really travel without much loss of kinetic force, but as in Mass Effect, you don't fire unless you KNOW it's going to hit something because the projectiles are the size of a city bus and they will eventually ruin someone's day. Sir. Isaac Newton is a nasty dude in space combat.

The shields in my 'verse are separated into two groups EM shields and Plasma. Em can scramble the guidance systems of all but the most hardened missiles and can rip apart any metallic object no matter the speed.(like firing a bullet over an electro magnet would shred said bullet) Plasma shields can absorb particle based weapons simply by being in the way, most mass driver weapons aren't effected because they're traveling way too fast. It's the particle based weapons that really wreck ships though so priority is generally given to plasma shields, the shield also will stay up even if the generator is damaged because the plasma is already there and is held in place by the EM shields but they will peter out under sustained fire unless the generator replenishes them. But there is no way to stop optical weapons since EM shields are invisible and plasma shields are nearly transparent, thus laser cannons rock, and hulls need to be very dense and thick.

All of this takes a lot of power, that's why I like to harness a star. No, really a star. The current battleship class in my 'verse carries two Mark IV Forced Fusion reactors. They're basically small stars, thus they're always generating power. they're contained by powerful magnetic fields and a lot of thermal barriers. (and sunscreen)

How do you handle artificial gravity?
Just out of curiosity how many fighter wings can your ships carry? My main ship's class (battleship) can carry 4 full wings of fighters in addition to transports and shuttles kept in a separate hanger. (yah, it's got two hangers)
My carriers ships however can field and support up to 14 full wings of fighters. 168 fighters total for those without calculators :P
And can launch all of said fighters in under one minute, four hangers with three launchers each gets the job done very fast.

I also dropped bombers, the fighters can handle nearly any payload since weight isn't a problem in space. (and their engines are extremely overpowered for their size)

Most of my ships are also designed to fly in atmospheres and land on planets with water. (which are surprisingly abundant for a reason)
Do yours land on planets?