I did a playtest of Knight Hawks and FrontierSpace's space combat systems and found I liked FrontierSpace's better. While KH has the hard sci-fi edge and that classic feeling, FS wins on the ability to play on a one-inch hex battle mat and has the ships and weapons I expect in sci-fi. The fighters have "blast pods," shorter-ranged space energy machineguns, and three one-shot rockets, which fits my concept of a starfighter.
It is like the FS designers knew about the problems in KH and combined that with the expectations of sci-fi gamers in what they expect from a space combat system.
I like the wargame nature of KH and the hard-tech feeling of fighting in tin cans with atomic rockets bolted onto them. The original KH starships feel like civilian ships rushed into military service. While the game tries to create a difference between military and civilian starships, they all feel like the same dangerous and fragile carriers of deadly weapons in space.
KH also cheats with the military starships in that they give them more weapons and defenses than they should be allowed to carry by the rules, but this is the "military design bonus" of top-secret designs, less crew comfort, and purpose-built ships around specific weapons systems. KH also has some "gamey" weapons and defenses, like electron and proton batteries and screens for each, where specific energy screens attract certain weapon types. We never liked those and used them sparingly.
FS feels a little like Traveller, with artificial gravity, but does one better by integrating hex combat like its inspiration. FS takes the best parts of KH, makes them better, and then drops in some of the more modern elements we expect in starship combat, like direct-fire fighter weapons.
If I am not designing my own hard-tech sci-fi space combat system, I will use FS since it is easier and faster than KH and fits my expectations better. Again, like the original rules inspired by this game, the KH rules feel of a specific time and show their age in some of the stranger choices they made.
If I am designing a hard-tech sci-fi space combat system, I am basing it on WW2 ships and systems, though moved into sci-fi and kicking the artificial gravity out the airlock. It will also target a one-inch hex battle mat since those are easy to get a hold of and are already in gamers' homes. It will also do a firing arc limitation for some weapons, such as a heavy spinal-mount weapon that can only fire straight forward. Star torpedoes will move on the map and accelerate toward an area, with their seekers picking a target and then homing in. Long-range batteries will fire at larger ships, while AA systems provide close-range flak for anti-fighter defenses. Defenses and "dropped weapons," such as radar chaff screens, will provide to-hit penalties for firing through them. Mines, decoys, and stealth will be a thing, with some ships so stealthy they act like WW2 submarines, appearing and firing, then hiding and running away since they are very fragile.
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