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In a nutshell, my question is about why laser-based weapons aren't more widely used in Capital ship combat.

I recognize the use of point-defense systems in space conflicts like Capital ship battles, which can be used to defend against incoming missiles or smaller starfighters, but after reviewing a few Wookieepedia articles and reading up more on point-defense systems in Star Wars, they all seem to suffer from the same dilemma of most "laser" weapons in the universe - They simply aren't /true/ lasers.

I'm looking for any reason, or lore (Both legends and otherwise) about why Star Wars wouldn't incorporate true Laser weapons more; With most combat taking place in the vacuum of space, wouldn't lasers be much more effective and practical since they wouldn't suffer from environmental detriments like thermal blooming, atmospheric barriers like rain, fog, and smoke, and many more ablative effects which would make true-lasers less viable options?

Valorum
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VillainousPhrog
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  • You can [edit] your question if you want to add anything else. – TheLethalCarrot Jul 12 '20 at 19:52
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    "Before the introduction of deflector shields, pilots had to rely solely on thick, armored hulls and panels of reflective armor for protection against meteors and laser attacks. More advanced versions of the energy shield were developed centuries later, until eventually modern shielding was able to combine ray and particle protection. Eventually, shield technology improved enough to allow some ground vehicles to have dedicated shield generators. - https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Deflector_shield/Legends - Per the wiki, lasers are ineffective against shields and hence pointless – Valorum Jul 12 '20 at 20:03
  • I wouldn't go as for as to say that laser-based weaponries are entirely "pointless", just that they are considered more of an archaic technology that has been overshadowed by blaster tech. – VillainousPhrog Jul 12 '20 at 20:39
  • Even if they aren't effective against shields that doesn't mean they're also entirely "pointless." As mentioned in the question, they're very adept at point defense and using the exact same wiki for Deflector shields, you can read that "The shield itself behaved in a manner similar to that of a thermally conductive material—energy applied was quickly diffused and re-radiated back into the environment, but the shield itself could also absorb some of the energy" Source;https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/12128/could-star-wars-deflector-shields-prevent-non-weaponized-energy-signals – VillainousPhrog Jul 12 '20 at 20:39
  • This can limit of spectrum for absorbable energy. After all, communications signals have to exit the ship, and laser weapons such as free-electron based ones are probably those with the highest variable wavelengths. – VillainousPhrog Jul 12 '20 at 20:42
  • I don't think the entire question should be closed. Sure, the question it's related to is asking a similar thing - But I'm trying to ask why Lasers aren't used more widely, not if they even exist in the Star Wars universe.

    Another thing with the duplication is that while you're right that the related question has answers in its comments that can provide some insight on /why/ they aren't used as much - They are, at the same time, incredibly vague; *"huge risk of friendly fire even in well-managed scenarios. And they are pretty much useless in e.g. smoke or fog" by Luaan. We're talking-

     – VillainousPhrog Jul 12 '20 at 21:05
  • -Capital Ship combat /and/ personal, not just one or the other.

    Another "answer" was that " hat there are numerous better choices of weapon...." – James Sheridan. Again, not exactly a very helpful answer.

     – VillainousPhrog Jul 12 '20 at 21:06
  • @Valorum OP appears to want a more detailed explanation of why this is a duplicate, as on the surface these appear to be heavily related questions on the same topic. – Someone_Evil Jul 12 '20 at 22:11
  • @Someone_Evil - It's a dupe because any relevant answer here can be duplicated over there with little or no alteration. – Valorum Jul 12 '20 at 22:23
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    @VillainousPhrog You left so many comments here that the system raised an automatic "too many comments" flag for moderators. I moved comments to chat; you can still see your comments in the chatroom, and [edit] them into the post if necessary. I've also reopened the question since "do laser weapons exist" (the answers being examples of "yes, but rare") doesn't answer your question of "why are they rare" at all. – Rand al'Thor Jul 13 '20 at 05:26
  • Laser weapons aren't used because this is a mixture of the Old West and Second World War sea combat. Blasters are just high tech versions of pistols and turbo-lasers are ship's cannons. – Valorum Jul 13 '20 at 07:17

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