Any One Still Playing This Game?

[Suicide Junkie]

Fy:
You seem to be comparing SE4's implementation against an imaginary optimal RTC system, rather than the available or even reasonable expectations of future implementations in SE5.

CQ:
My condolences. Stock weapon ranges and combat speeds aren't matched to the size of the combat map.

There is also a realism vs gameplay tradeoff there. I prefer having the steel cage matches where the edge comes into play only after the halfway point of battle (how long after, depending on how much of a distraction you deployed to the front lines)
Combat speeds of 2-4 are much better for the available map size.

Having missile ships just run away forever, lobbing missiles until they run out and head back to a planet for more... would be anti-fun IMO.
SE3 has missile launch range equal to a typical DF weapon range.
SE4 has longer missile ranges, but includes the no-retreat map.
SE5... uh oh!


PS:
That's what I'm talking about with weapons > defenses...
Instant vaporization of 8/21 ships in the first freaking round? You surely couldn't have been outnumbered by a huge margin if you thought you should have won.

You know, this reminds me of SE5's issue with the 128x processing rates.
If you have fights occur in huge time steps you lose a lot of fairness.