Firing range on guns and lasers in Starsector is very short, likely as a gameplay choice. However, the range being so short - especially on smaller ship classes - has various negative effects during battle:
Blobs and ship pile-ups:
With gun range being so short, ships, especially smaller ones with smaller guns and/or less range boost from hull mods, are forced to get very close to targets. With many ships involved, this results in massive pile-ups of ships trying to shoot at the same targets and
constantly crashing into each other and blocking each others' shots. When people complain about ship AI being bad, it often stems from the AI being put into inextricable situations by their gun range.Inability of escorts to protect escorted ships:
When ships are tasked with escorting a bigger ship, for example as PD escorts against fighters and missiles, the short range of guns is such that the escort usually cannot engage anything flying at the other ship before it gets hit. With many guns the escort's firing range can be less than even the length or width of a capital ship, making intercepting threats impossible unless the escort is already in their path beforehand, leading to the next point>
Ships with short weapon range blocking other ships' guns:
Ships with lower range weapons will frequently block the firing lines of ships behind them, causing situations where your big ships with powerful guns are made unable to shoot by whatever allies are in front of them. This makes using escorts harmful in most cases and discourages the use of anything but the biggest ships available outside of small skirmishes.
My main suggestion is to
increase the overall range of direct fire weapons to some extent. Even a fairly small increase may be enough to have a very positive effect on ship AI: no longer stuck trying to maneuver and fight while rubbing shoulders with dozens of other ships all trying to shoot at targets up close, the AI would have more space to perform properly, also reducing player frustration and "AI is bad/stupid" feelings.
The dev could start by testing the effect of a blanket increase, like increasing the range of all guns by 30% on a test build, and then work from there and fine-tune numbers to achieve a certain weapon balance.
My secondary suggestion is to
reduce the gap in range boost available from hull mods between ship classes. In a game where weapon range is overall short and ships can't shoot over each other, smaller ship classes having significantly shorter firing range than larger ones makes it difficult for them to do anything except hinder the larger ships by blocking their shots as they move in for their own attacks.
This could be done by making DTC useable on all ship classes like ITU is and tightening the values between classes on both hullmods. To retain a good difference in power between classes, larger ships could get boosts in other areas from these hullmods - such as reduced recoil. Example: ITU goes from 10/20/40/60% range boost to 30/40/50/60% range boost + 0/0/15/30% reduced weapon recoil.
Edit: Additional suggestions from later posts
And on that note, that's an additional suggestion from me in solving these issues and the problem of escorts: something, like a hullmod, that grants a range boost to frigates and destroyers when near a cruiser or capital ship or when ordered to escort them. Doesn't make them stronger in smaller battles but helps them be relevant and less of a hindrance to other ships in bigger fights.
Another suggestion: Change sensor bonus back to what it originally did in early releases, increase your shot range instead of reducing the enemy's shot range.