Quote Originally Posted by Ormur View Post
I kind of think the unrealistic part of space battles isn't the huge explosion but the proximity at which they are fought and the amount of damage the ship can take. I assume any seriously space worthy ship would be packing so much destructive capability a single hit might be enough. I'm thinking nuke-pumped x-ray lasers, anti matter missiles and relativistic kill vehicles vs ships that are still quite flimsy.
Space battles would actually have to be fought at pretty close ranges, no more than a few hundred kilometers otherwise the other ships can easily avoid weapons. Even a laser at hundreds of thousands of kilometers gives just enough reaction time to avoid being hit completed.

Also a nuclear detonation in space isn't going to be terrible effective. There's no atmosphere to super heat and cause a fireball with. You'd be better of with solid slugs traveling a 0.01% the speed of light. You might find success with AP rockets or missiles.