So, here's my heresy:
The Heretical Suggestion is that Transports above 100M be turned into Poor Mans Cruisers. The ones below 100M, thats the 3k ones, be made junior versions of the bigger ships.
I've two facets of this transformation, Hulls, which varies from ship to ship, and guns, which would be the customibizable bit.
Hulls: Takes in the shape, size, flexibility, and durability of the ships, and includes a couple modes: Fighting transports (which should be the most bloody expensive of the net, without ever reaching 5k cargo), General Haulers, Armoured runners and Mobility runners.
From most expensive (above 200 million) to cheapest (80 million)
The Fighting transports, the Liners, the CTransports, the Pirate Train and the Pirate trans, should have armour in the range of 180-210k armour (just below cruiser range) and above 9 turrets. These are the fortresses of space, poor man's cruisers, and the fear of gunboats and bombers alike. Their little cousins, the house Transports, the Percheron, Mammoth, Behemoth, and the Kusari transport, will be the companions of the Police forces, for intercepting and detaining cargoes, bristling with arms and far more manueverable than this class.
Admittedly, the Trains, Including the Atrain, Train, Ltrain, Ktrain, and RTrain, are less fighting vessels than they are outright hauling vessels. That said, I'd argue that they deserve about 140k armour apiece, and 5 to turret mounts, excepting the Train and the Ltrain, which would get 100 and 120 respective of their prices and increased mobility. These are the middle ground ships, and contain a most of the 5k transports.
The Seige ships, the Superarmoured ship, which should get an armour of above 230k, and one or no turrets, and the lowest manuverability, and must either run to a safe haven or wait for reinforcements.
The running ships, the whale sort, are reasonably, even stupidly cheap, and very manuverable/fast. They should have engines which start faster than the normal transport cruise wait, and high manuverability, as they've been stripped of almost all armour, at a hull integrity of 27k: one Snac should be survivable, if the ship is armoured, but only barely. These have one or two turrets, and depend on their pilot's skills at dodging and trickery for survival.
The Guns would incorporate a damage increase, ranges of roughly 1000 meters, but not a speed increase, Pulse cannons, Razors, and Missiles, simmilar to scaled down Cruiser, or scaled up Gunboat equipment.
