Ask Lemmy

Logistics is probably the wrong word, I don’t mean the actual physics of space combat, that never super mattered to me. As a kid that played a lot of X-wing so I probably imprinted some of that onto the movies. That game made it feel like a real space navy with an organization, ranks, squadrons, tactics, etc. that made more sense than the way the movies portrayed it.

I always disliked that the movies didn’t show more of the world-building, they definitely could feel shallow at times, but considering they were based on old Flash Gordon type serials I guess it makes sense.

I suppose the space battles could sort of some sense given the technology in the Star Wars universe.

Your spaceships have two engines/drives. You have the hyperspace engines which are fast but you can't engage in fight in hyperspace (well...mostly), then you have the regular ion engines for use out of hyperspace which are slow as shit. Capital ships can barely get out of their own way, and even the Millennial Falcon isn't terribly quick when not in hyperspace. Now combined with weapons like blasters which have the problem that blaster bolts are also slow as shit. As in considerably slower than bullet fired from a conventional firearm. So if you fire them from a distance from a target, they can see the blaster bolt coming and move out of the way (or jump into hyperspace) long before it gets there. Crappy, slow engines combined with crappy, slow space weapons means capital ship battles might involve the ships having to get close to each other and just slugging it out. That can also sort of explain the small fighters since they can get in really close and hit the ships at basically point-blank range. Though the lack of hit-and-run tactics involving jumping in and out of hyperspace is a bit curious.

The rareness of the hyperspace-suicide maneuver might be rare as the rebels don't have a lot of ships, and if they start plowing them into Empire ships, they'll quickly run of ships and no matter how many Empire ships they take out in a battle, the Empire will always have another Star Destroyer. Though the big problem with introducing the possibility of this sort of maneuver in the later movies is the rebels would have absolutely plowed a ship into the Death Star with completely devastating results in the first movie. And anyone building a Death Star would have been well aware of an attack like that and would have known it would be almost impossible to defend against when you're building a moon-sized target for it.