For various reasons, I’ve been reading up on Space Warfare, with an emphasis on the more realistic kind. While doing some research I came across some great material on the Bad Astronomy and Universe Today forum. In particular there was one thread that impressed me, mostly due to a user named Stuart who is clearly connected with the US Air ForceĀ or NASA in some significant way. His posts in that thread are especially worth reading for anyone interested in the topic of Space Warfare from a game or fiction perspective, although it’s probably best to read the whole thread. He mostly compares it with submarine warfare, which I agree is an extremely apt comparison.
I also came across another set of articles on the topic, and am in the process of going through them. Interesting stuff.
Back to the submarine warfare as space warfare I suggested long ago, though his comments are quite a bit more advanced. But, as you pointed out back then, realism doesn’t necessarily give you what you need for a story.
Quite true. I deeply considered your suggestion to base Twin Stars off Submarine-style warfare, but in the end I abandoned it because it didn’t have the right feel I was looking for with this story. In the end I needed something that involved quicker action and simpler tactics than a submarine-warfare type battle system would have lent itself to. I needed a system wherein the focus could stay on the characters and not a lot of detail would be needed for ship battles since they are mostly a background element anyways. Hopefully I’ve succeeded.
Still, it would be cool to do a “realistic” story someday, since as Stuart points out there’s a lot of drama to be found there too! Just look at movies like Hunt for Red October and Crimson Tide.