FTL drives and communications are well-within the bounds of currently-accepted science, but everything that could produce the effect is currently theoretical.

For instance, current theories predict that there are billions of mini wormholes per square meter, that conceivably could be used for transportation if they could be inflated to the size of an EM wave (So we could pass information through it). There are also the hypothesized "Naked singularities" which can be used as stellar-scale wormholes.

Then there's negative friction.

Alcubierre (Spelling? I always mess that up?) drive, similar to in-game warp drive.

And others.

Just because something is 'realistic' doesn't mean it isn't fantastic!

It's a question of EW and fuel capacity. If the EW is too strong, then there are issues with keeping in touch with or in control of the drones. The drones further require enough fuel to return to the carrier after performing their mission (unless your drones are not intended for reuse, but then it becomes difficult to distinguish the 'drone' from a missile variant).

Beyond that, whether drones are practical when fighters are not still requires that something similar in scale to a fighter would be able to make a reasonably significant contribution to the battle. If something of that scale cannot carry a sufficiently potent weapon, say due to insufficient power capacity, then it doesn't really matter whether you send in a manned or unmanned version of the craft since it isn't going to buy you anything anyways.

Directional accuracy in pointing the weapon is a very significant issue when dealing with extreme-range engagements. Even if we assume a perfect prediction algorithm, very minor errors in the aiming direction of a weapon can result in missing the target by a significant amount, particularly if the engagement range is some number of light-seconds. If we do not assume a perfect predictive algorithm (which is much more reasonable than assuming a perfect one), then the speed at which we can aim the weapon in the desired direction is an additional factor impacting the accuracy of our fire, and generally speaking is a competing objective to high directional accuracy. We further need to be able to compensate for vibrations in the vessel which could throw off the aim, whether caused by normal ship operations, our other weapons firing, or by successful enemy hits.

Also, your point regarding exoplanets? Kind of misses the point. Exoplanets aren't trying to mess up the sensor readings; presumably, two sets of warships engaging one another would attempt to distort or deceive the opposing side's sensors to the best of their ability. Even a minor error in target speed, direction of travel, or maneuvering indicators could cause significant error in aiming based on a predictive algorithm being used to target where a vessel will be several seconds in the future based on data several seconds old.

They would have been in galciv2 if more people had taken the poll on including carriers.

everything that involves wormholes/timetravel/FTL in current science involves something like negative mass, negative gravity, infinite energy or some other exotic resource that, which at this point is really not even close to being able to being tested in any way. It's just speculative mathematics based on one of several current theories, which may be accepted as the current best candidates, but are nowhere near proven or even tested.

I'd say were orders of magnitude closer to manipulating gravity now that the higgs field is confirmed, then we are to interstellar travel of any kind. We can now say that with the higgs field established, we may "soon" detect gravitons. and then "soon" thereafter we might be able to manipulate the graviton in the same way we manipulate photons/electrons today. Lot's of ifs and maybes. There is currently no analogy of how to get to negative mass or negative energy that i know off. we don't have negative light or negative electricity for example.

Alcubierre drive is one of the more fleshed out options suggested but that still requires a few grams of exotic matter. I also seem to recall it's not possible to interact with the bubble making things like stopping a problem.

Gaunathor. That is insane. Everyone check out the 7½ year old link Gaunathor gave us. How do you do this every time without fail? Lol. Karma for Gaunathor the controller.

This goes to show the player is always right and we don't forget about what we want until we get it. (was SD really that stubborn to denounce the pleas of the customer repeatedly?)

DARCA.

Darca, forgive me, but it's the next day and I just now got the joke!  I was thinking "What poll?  I don't remember any carrier poll..."  hehehe

Given the state of drone tech in RL here on Sol 3, my suspicion is that 'one person' fighter craft will never compete well with drones.  GalCiv is not a hard science based game franchise.  I would prefer that fighters not be apart of the game.  I would prefer that auto-drones be used instead.  By 'auto' I mean drones that can function without direct control from a 'handler' located somewhere else.  Game play wise, I agree with Paragon"  fast zipping things that go 'pew pew' can be fun. 

The tiny hulls (fighters) are not necesarily manned in GalCiv, at least for custom civilizations (I read of Yor scoutships being manned by a single unit). Or any other hull. You don't use population to "eject" them from the planet (colony/tranports just for cargo) so as far as the inner storytelling of each game, all the ships may be automated. I certainly enjoyed creating Cylon Raiders in GalCivII (cybernetic as they are in nature).

Unless Stardock goes out of the way jus to add ship components to create drone versions of the ships/hulls that offer some kind of twist/alternative/variation to the usual ship warfare/travel/etc.