You fucking nerds Star Wars was cool because it looked cool, not because of physics. The designs were original, had that used grungy look that wasn't usual for sci-fi at the time, and were just as important to establishing the universe as the plot.

Who fucking cares about earth physics when you had physics from a galaxy far, far away?

That's actually one of the main focuses of space combat in the Revelations Cycle: They still use thrust to generate gravity, missile and laser engagements at long and short range, and the only way to jump from system to system is through gates. So, when combat takes place, the two chokepoints are the system gate, and wherever the goal is for the attackers.

Looked like a variation on the covert shroud gambit, combined with what looked like ship-sized lightsabers.

You say that the missiles would need significant vectored thrust to correct their course if the target is evading. That’s not quite accurate. They only need more thrust than their target has. There is no drag in space, so once it is closing to intercept, it only has to match the target’s maneuvers. The target has no special advantages over the missile with regards to maneuverability, and could have significant disadvantages in regards to rotation rates and thrust to weight ratios. Especially if heavily loaded with cargo or fuel.

Except that, In his case, the bigger drive wins.

Except that, In his case, the bigger drive wins.

No. It’s a matter of thrust to mass ratio, and how much delta-v the missile has. The missiles would be built with a high thrust to weight ratio. The delta-v they carry would determine the range the missile is useful at. Longer ranges means more time for the target to use their more efficient engines. If the target can maneuver enough while the missile closes distance, it could run the missile out of delta-v, basically put itself on a trajectory that the missile cannot match.

Determining the optimal closing speed for the missile would likely involve making an estimate of the maximum acceleration of your target. A higher closing speed requires using more of the missile’s delta-v in the initial burn, and leaves less for maneuvering, but conversely, a lower closing speed means that your target has more time to maneuver, and you need more delta-v to match the target’s maneuvers. If you know exactly how much acceleration your target can achieve, then you have the missile burn towards the target until is has just over the delta-v remaining that your target can achieve if it were to go to maximum burn the entire time to intercept. Depending on the amount of fuel or cargo onboard the target (or if the target dumps cargo or propellant to improve their acceleration), it could have very different acceleration even compared to other ships of the same class.

This assumes that your target is not going to actively defend itself against your missile. If that were the case, you are likely going to want your missile to save additional delta-v for doing its own evasive maneuvers as it closes on the target.