They have bridges because human sense still Annoying Oranges technology. It's just not practical. If i want to know where the forget im going, i'm going to be seeing with my eyes. Not hiding behind a screen and hoping the calculations are right.
Interestingly enough, space combat would be stalemate.
There would primarily be three main components.
The obvious parts is your back engines. These are vital for thrust. It's only necessary that the engines be cased behind armor and vented properly.
The ships themselves wouldn't be all that flashy either. Like early tanks of world war 1, they would be similar in shape and have a consistency about them. Why? Well it's to prevent the costs from being extremely high. It's also easier to build and maintain. I don't think these ships are ever leaving space if they're combat vessels, so atmospheric properties wouldn't be applied here.
Now for weaponry, i imagine a simple warhead strapped to a guided rocket. A slow one at that. A space torcreep. There are more reasons for this than one. Firstly, it's hard to judge your distance in space. If the enemy can't see you, but you can see them, then it's the optimal time to strike. You don't want an exposed cannon giving your position away, nor do you want the flash to trigger sensors on the enemy ship and alert them. So the best way combat one another, from a far at least, is with the use of slow moving ballistic devices strong enough to punch a hole in the hull and effectively gut the ship.
But what if the enemy sees your missile? Well that's where things can get complicated. You see these ships might be equipped with an IR laser of a sort that triggers the detonation mechanism of the warhead. I imagine these warheads might be pretty damn expensive too. Since it's effectively a mini Saturn IV with a huge ass bomb on the tip. Well, ammunitions out. What do you do? This is where a spearhead design can come in handy. A quarter mile long rod that can penetrate the hull of the enemy by excessive force.
Or, you both blow your ammunition and turn around to go to a station and the cycle begins anew. Just my thought.
