User blog comment:Ficus7/Allowed Technology/@comment-11135771-20140913133317/@comment-11135771-20140913154831

One thing I forgot: if you put a mirrored finish on a ship, it would reflect a laser beam fired at it, negating the damage and sending the beam back at what fired it (depending on the angle). That said, a highly powerful laser would burn through a mirror pretty quickly. You can never make something a perfect mirror, so even if 1% of the light gets through, if the laser is strong enough, that 1% will be sufficient to fry the mirror, turning it black/otherwise nonreflective. Even so, before that happens you'll still end up with the beam being reflected back in the general direction of whatever fired at you for a brief moment before the mirror burns up. Particle beam weapons on the other hand, would be entirely unaffected by mirrors.