Hello, all!

Something I've always kinda struggled with in D&D is starting things off at longer distances. It's hard for me to consider when the Initiative roll starts to convey to the group "Okay, this is now where combat starts" when maybe their foes are not aware of them. In D&D you just have these odd turns where a player just spends their turn moving up X feet. Star Wars has way more ranged combat, so it's not as awkward. Short and Medium range can be boring repeatedly, but I find that's what always end up being the environment since that's where a conversation turns sour and the guns come out, or you turn a corner in a building and see a bunch of Stormtroopers.

How do you handle starting a long range combat encounter without it feeling like, "down the long path you see some stormtroopers"?

Thanks!

A planned ambush from PCs or the opposition is all I can really imagine. Add in a terrain feature that is in the way to prevent normal movement to engaged.

Rooftops.

Exchanging fire between speeders by occupants.

Ambushes in appropriate terrain, like a desert world where a guy in white armor on a green lizard sticks out against sand.

Big landing bays.

Trenches in snowfields.

Defending a perimeter.

Greater ranges is about the setting. Eventually people will close with targets if you have to get close.

I'm going to double down on the Pirate's suggestion of landing bays. A couple of games back, I had my Jedi taking fire from all vectors in a landing bay, and it was a very near thing for them. The "well, it takes you three moves and a bunch of strain to close to saber swinging range on just that one group of minions" plus that they were trying to rescue a bunch of prisoners - basicly a Goldeneye Escort Mission to a shuttle - nearly did them in.

• A blaster bolt screams out of nowhere narrowly missing you. The distinctive 'wizz-pop' makes clear the shooter is hundreds of meters away. Roll Vigilance.
• Roll Vigilance against 3 purple. Failure with a Triumph! That's your initiative and you upgrade your defenses for the first round (unless you've got something else you'd rather have happen). You see a brief glimmer of reflected light on a rooftop down the block before (roll roll) a blaster bolt hits the speederbike next to you causing the power cell to explode knocking you to the ground.
• The Stormtrooper with the large antenna coming out of his backpack bends over slightly holding a hand to the side of his head. A moment later you see a skiff pop over a hill on the horizon loaded with Stormtroopers, who open fire!

To key off of Ghostofman's suggestion, reinforcements should always engage at long range. I almost always use Imperial reinforcements to scale encounters, and to let the players (within reason) dictate how far they want to get stuck in. If they have a mission to complete in the middle of an engagement, they know it's only a matter of time before overwhelming force is brought to bear. This really serves to ratchet up the tension.

I have successfully used long-ranged engagements as a method of kiting PCs into an L-shaped ambush. Despite the shock, they really enjoyed themselves once they realized what had happened (classic MMORPG tactic), and the secondary force at close range provided good fodder for melee specialists.

Chases and pursuits (in both the mechanics and narrative senses) are also great ways to extend engagement ranges. Something like a checkpoint or security cordon could even allow the encounter to work with non-combat engagements. The PCs are directed to stop their vehicle at Long range from a checkpoint, then issued instructions by a guard with a loud-hailer. Social skills can all be used (maybe with a Setback from bellowing to be heard at distance), and if things go badly, your range is built-in for combat checks.