I have never really liked freighter, cap battles after the TZ/TS introduction. RM-LN raids were the most fun thing to do in 4.84, combat felt more.. tactical than the one-person-chases-while-the-other-runs we see today. Back then, you could could play tactical and have full mobility but sacrificing arcs or enabling all arcs but sacrificing mobility.
TS/TZ turned cap battles/duels into one, lighter (or narrower, less armoured, more agile) capital into running while firing backwards, the other is chasing. This is literally 95% of what I see. The other is just facetanking one another, no other tactics really.
That addition also made gunboats (and some freighters) literally unkillable unless you throw 5 players on one. Gunboats can't be killed by fighters and bombers unless massed (due to their agility and constant fending off) or by cruisers and battleships (due to their agility and size). It's literally the strongest class and the only thing that effectively counters it is just another gunboat. Even then the other one usually struggles to hit at a slightly bigger range.
Maybe I'm viewing it through nostalgia goggles and am stupid in your perspective (I might be, since I didn't play caps very much since TS/TZ was introduced anymore), but I really think stuff would be a lot more fun without steering or zooming. Maybe just limiting it to battleships or something.
