No offense, but you probably should have included that last sentence in the first post. You specifically stated “this thread is not about GSB”, which could be misleading.
Of course realism has nothing to do with this game. This game is based much more closely on the Star Wars model.
No, I don’t think that “real world” space warships, when/if we have them are going to be able to miss a target the size of a GSB cruiser when they’re going super slow and you can basically just point you gun at them. But then, “cruiser lasers” are about the least lasery weapon I’ve ever seen. They remind me of the Mooninite Quad Moon Laser from Aqua Teen Hunger force the way they crawl across the screen.
That’s ok… games are about the balance and the pretty.
Also, I don’t believe I have seen many people trying to argue “real” physics in GSB so I not sure why you felt the need to post it. Although it has given rise to interesting conversations about theoretical space warfare technology.
And I don’t think this is a hard test. The satellite isn’t making any attempt to avoid being hit; it’s known where it is at all times, and there’s nothing else to confuse tracking. All unlike the middle of a battle of any sort.
Just to weigh in on the subject of tanks; yes, modern tanks (and all other types of fighting vehicle) miss, even with the best fire-control systems. Bear in mind that even if a fire-control system can compute the “perfect” trajectory for a shot, it may need to do so a) with tank and turret/gun moving in three dimensions, over ground it cannot predict (say, if the driver runs over a rock while the vehicle is in the process of firing) and with the target moving, possibly behind cover which makes the shot impossible, during the flight time of the shell; b) the fire-control can work only on the information it can receive, which may not necessarily be complete enough (say if some IR-blocking smoke or other obstacle gets in the way while it’s trying to point the gun; and there’s no guarantee that wind strength will be uniform along the line of flight) and c) the tank commander usually has to verbally direct the gunner as to what to shoot at, and when (even if they do have the capability to override it, or pick the target themself, they will still usually tell the gunner to fire) which introduces further (but necessary, because reliably identifying things to fire a large chunk of metal and/or explosive at is something you really want to leave to humans and not computers) uncertainty.
But yeah, giant spaceships at the ludicrously small ranges in GSB fighting in the realm of dogfighting-in-space physics, they ought to be able to hit each other a lot.
You specifically stated “this thread is not about GSB”, which could be misleading.