idea for battleships...

[alance]

I don't get why people come up with WW2 or any other real-life references.

Because it's a good frame of reference.

More importantly, what idiotic space military would build a capital ship that couldn't defend itself with light weapons when they're lying about the shipyard? It's as much common sense as anything, suspension of disbelief and all that.

Not having a framework (as NEXUS suggested above) makes for a mess of balancing problems and ship classification confusion. I'd rather see it modeled on something solid that has actually been tested in combat IRL.

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"To gain a hundred victories in a hundred battles is not the highest excellence;
to subjugate the enemy's army without doing battle is the highest of excellence."