Space combat itself is a long-distance affair, with ships firing missiles and railgun shots at each other from far beyond visual range, then using a combination of maneuvering and point-defense turrets to survive the enemy counter-attack. Spaceships move through space in accordance with Newtonian physics, firing off their rocket engines to accelerate, then flipping around and "burning" in reserve to decelerate.
The Expanse portrays space travel in a visual style much more faithful to real-world physics, and as a result, space battles in this series are very different from naval or aerial combat. Despite the gap between the stylized space wars of Homeworld and the more realistic space combat in The Expanse TV series, there's still a intriguing similarity in the designs and profiles of Homeworld spaceships and Expanse spaceships, particularly in the gameplay previews Blackbird Interactive has released for Homeworld 3. Related: The Mandalorian’s Space Battles Are Better Than Anything The Sequels Didĭevelopers of Homeworld games use a very cinematic depiction of space travel in their game's mechanics - partially to emulate the Star Wars/Star Trek space scenes mentioned above, and partially because realistic space travel can be very technically complex (as seen in simulation games like Kerbal Space Program or Children Of A Dead Earth). Despite being in the weightless vacuum of space, the vessels of Homeworld move around as if they're in an atmosphere and dogfight with each other at practically point-blank range. Large spaceships like Frigates, Destroyers, Battlecruisers, and Carriers correspond to the naval vessels in service during World War II - powerful and tough, but slow-moving, while swifter vessels like corvettes, interceptors, or bombers correspond to propeller-driven fighter planes and bombers.
Homeworld, Homeworld: Cataclysm, Homeworld 2, and other games in the Homeworld franchise whole-heartedly ascribe to the " World War II Naval Battles, but in Space" depiction of space combat, a not-quite realistic paradigm popularized by the Star Trek and Star Wars franchises.