On page 219 of the core book, it states that starship weapons may fire at targets no further than twice the weapons range.

On page 248 of the core book, it says Long Range is more than double the range of a "character's" weapon. I assume this includes ship's weapons.

If up to double is normal firing, and you can't get past double, it seems you can't do Long Range ship combat.

On page 13 of the Games Master's Kit, in the Braving the Storm sidebar, the storm doubles the penalties for ship's weapons firing at long range.

Is there a rule for long range in starship combat that I'm missing? Or did the GM Kit mis-speak?

A ship may fire at another ship at up to twice its weapons range, but it incurs a -10 penalty to the roll target. 1-2x the weapons range rating is, for all intents and purposes, "long" range.

A ship at half or less of its range rating incurs a +10 bonus to the roll target.

As pointed out in the book, player weapons versus ship weapons are apples and big-ass oranges. While the rulesets may be mostly the same for simplicity, a lasgun aimed out the open window of a ship would not even scratch the paintjob on a freighter. Similarly, a macrocannon that managed to hit anywhere near a character would annihilate him instantly.

So, yes, for all effective intents and purposes, the effective range of a ship weapon is twice its range rating in VU's. Presumably you "could" try and fire beyond that range, but like the scatter of shotgun birdshot beyond a certain range, firing a macrocannon battery fusillade beyond that range would be an exercise in futility, not even being able to overload their void shields. Similarly with lances I think that would be considered the point at which beyond the light diffraction becomes so severe that the weapon is effectively harmless.

Thanks.

The +10/-10 you talk about is on the last paragraph of 219, which continues on the next page. It doesn't call these ranges Long or Short, probably to avoid confusion with the personal weapons modifiers.

If I were to run the adventure in the GMI Kit, I'd say Long Range for ship weapons is the range that is greater than the ship's weapon's range, and no greater than double the ship's weapons range, and use the Fouled Targeting penalties there.