Thing is though, why should a fighter be able to stand toe to toe with a destroyer and above?
In Freespace 2, X3, Xwing/Tie-Fighter I utterly dreaded going near those horrible capships with their beam cannons (FS2 and X3's Khaak), tons and tons of turbolasers (xwing/tie fighter) and just general terror (flak oh god)
In all honesty, capships should only be bought down by two or three fighters or a couple of bombers. This promotes team-work and less solo independents.
If it were possible, it'd be cool if destroyers and above did 330 or less at cruise, and fighters 350 or above. This way fighters can both:
a) outrun and ambush a destroyer
b) flee
This would make it hard for any bullies to meander about the galaxy blowing up fighters willy-nilly. The fighter pilots would have the choice of running or staying.
e: if nothing else, how about a rule where if the fight takes more than an hour, both sides can vote to leave combat and pretend the fight didn't happen. OORP as heck, I know... but there's a point where you have to sit back and go, "wait a minute, this is just stupid". I have to go AFK quite frequently to help my family with things, go to the toilet, make a drink...
