So, is the "range" at what a ship is engaging at based on its actual position relative to its target, or is it set by the "range" of the lane it's in?  Example: I have a ship outfitted for, say, medium range, with an 87% efficiency at medium range.  My opponent chooses a short-range lane, and I choose a medium range lane.  By the nature of the actual combat, our ships end up very close.  Is my ship technically fighting at close range when that happens, ergo I lose my 87% efficiency, or since I put it in a medium range lane, does it get that 87% no matter the actual relation to the target.

As I understand that situation you would fight phase 1 of the battle at medium range, phase 2 at short range, and phase 3 at short range. Ships start at the max range requested by either party and then close 1 distance per phase, I believe.

If you destroyed all opposing ships in your lane, I think you (depending on distances) are able to fire on other lanes as if you were at long range.

That is correct.

Frogsquadron wrote:

That is correct.

Sometimes. Whether or not flotillas can fire at adjacent (rather than opposite) enemy flotillas is in practice very inconsistent, depending on tactics choices.

Sometimes. Whether or not flotillas can fire at adjacent (rather than opposite) enemy flotillas is in practice very inconsistent, depending on tactics choices.

That's what I meant by "depending on distances". I think it depends on literally how far the ships are from each other, based on the trajectories that the tactics dictate. Too far, and you can't do anything even with long-range weapons. I think the bottom-most flotilla is most likely to be stranded too far from the combat, but I haven't done the research.

Angles, not ranges, but yes. Roughly. There's something odd about cross-flotilla firing that suggests it's not quite long range either, but it seems mostly to be.

Aatxe's description is pretty much correct, as Frogsquadron already confirmed.

I believe originally the cross-flotilla fire was meant to take the actual distances into account, but that was simplified to always be considered long range.

It's important to note that flotillas fire only across one lane border, so flotillas in the 1 and 3 lanes will nevr fire at each other (except with bombers).

And as Dragar already pointed out, firing angles play a very important role in cross-flotilla fire: Broadside weapons cover a 120° angle to the sides of the ships, turret weapons a 270° angle around the prow. There are several flotilla combinations where the adjacent enemy flotilla will end up in the 60° angle behind your ships where neither turrets nor broadsides can fire.

Both Foraven's Flotillas Pathing Rework v.2 and my own Combat Path Rework - Battlelines should make cross-flotilla fire very reliable. I had at one point worked on a prototype of a pathing rework involving proper pincer maneuvers from the flanking fleets, but ran into unmoddableissues with the UI. If people here are interested in that, though, I can probably  update it to the current version of the game and upload it as well.