Re: Space fightercraft in RPGs.
Half the range means half the time to maneuver - you reduce massively your opponent's cone of maneuver - the area where he could be when the munition reaches that zone. Thus, you need to cover, not one half, but closer to a quarter the volume of space he could be in. Plus, if you're dealing with any sort of lightspeed lag, you will have a much better idea of where he is NOW. A closer shot will ALWAYS be more likely to engage a mobile target in a space battle.
Sure...if your opponent is dumb enough to not be using decoys, scramblers, jamming and every other aspect of ECM and ECCM he can get his greedy little paws on. Anything worth hitting is going to be doing all in it's power to avoid being hit, especially including anything that will degrade your missiles' lock on. And the ECM power of a ship will always be greater than that of a missile.
Now, at short ranges that isn't going to be a huge problem - a ship silhouetted against space up close is going to be like a giant neon sign saying HIT ME! even if just from the heat emissions of it's life support. The trick is getting your warshots into that range while still having the fuel to pull evasives and terminal maneuvers against the active defenses and the target. To do THAT will require a powerful set of sensors to try and burn through the enemy defenses and get a clear lock-on. If you fire from too far out, you're going to waste missiles, may be not get a kill. Fighters let you have the best of both worlds - you keep your ship out at ranges where hits are unlikely, while your missiles launch from way closer.
Now, it could be argued that a full-size ship would have better ECM and sensors than a little fighter, and there's some truth to that. However, that advantage disappears if you link the sensor systems of a group of fighters - can you say "synthetic aperture array"?
Yup. You're going to use more fuel this way - the fuel for the fighters out and back, the fuel for the missiles. I'll make that trade for increased chance of a kill.
True, it's likely not always possible. But it is something to keep in mind.