How about we COMPLETELY redesign gunboats!?

[Highland Laddie]

Why shouldn't a Gunboat die to a cruiser or two bombers? A Cruiser can die to two bombers....

I actually kinda like the idea of splitting the GB class into light/anti-snub and heavy/anti-cap SUPPORT (the key there being don't expect to go up against a BC lone gunboat and win).

Seems it would make the GB class more versatile than it is currently.

[kikatsu]

We have enough unused shield classes to split them up between cruisers and gunboats depending on size. Freighters really only use class 6 shields, everything above that is taken, leaving freighter shield classes 1-5 open for specialization like what happened with the fighter guns. That can make smaller gunboats have weaker shields and bigger ones having stronger shields.

Gunboats do need tweaking, not sure if your stats work, but your idea at its core has merit for sure.

[Haste]

Anything that makes gunboats actually fun to fly and have a skill curve beyond "Know your arcs" and "Zoom out very far", and maybe even "Reverse once in a while to annoy people trying to SNAC you", would be great.

Like, make them actually fun to fly.

The same can be said about most capital ships, but it would be nice if at least Gunboats were interesting.

Edit:
I doubt the changes suggested in the OP would achieve this, mind you. Gunboats are sort-of inbetween Bombers and Cruisers. It'd be nice if they were a little more like the former, perhaps.

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[Coin]

gunship - anti snub
gunboat - anti cap

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A Day in the Life of an NPC | Coin | The Journal of Caius Oakley | Build Your Dream Boat

[evanz]

other way round

gunship - anti cap

gunboat - anti snub

ship > boat

[Pilip]

This is mumble jumble to me...Didn't we had all mighty good vs all Bomber against all Caps? coz that's how i remember Aaall responses here if one would have said like: hey bomber OP ! the next second all against...''shut yo mouth...is not, is not enough as it is, it should be able to kill planets too..'';( ; what it is now, you want even a bigger good vs all class? be cause that's what it seems masked behind the screwed GBs....(Yes they should be Fixed against SNUBS which was theyre role since were designs, not a new good vs everything tool); and forget about splitting the GB class in 2, next time someone will come and say: hey we Need to split the heavy cruiser in 2 also, anti-snub and anti-shi*...or whatever..and then hey we also Need to split the V H F class in 2 just be cause SO !

[Lythrilux]

This is mumble jumble to me...Didn't we had all mighty good vs all Bomber against all Caps?

That was called the bottlenose, but it was hardly OP. That discussion is for another time.
But now that the bottlenose is nerfed, it's a lot less effective as it used to be because it's Armour is too weak to go along with it's hitbox, combined with crappy guns and it's low powercore, it's not very useful. But yet again, that discussion is another time.

the next second all against...''shut yo mouth...is not, is not enough as it is, it should be able to kill planets too..'';( ; what it is now, you want even a bigger good vs all class? be cause that's what it seems masked behind the screwed GBs....(Yes they should be Fixed against SNUBS which was theyre role since were designs, not a new good vs everything tool); and forget about splitting the GB class in 2, next time someone will come and say: hey we Need to split the heavy cruiser in 2 also, anti-snub and anti-shi*...or whatever..and then hey we also Need to split the V H F class in 2 just be cause SO !

You sound like you hardly read anything I wrote. Yes, I do want them split into two roles but that is because we can make both sides of the gunboat balance argument as happy as possible. If I understood correctly, you do acknowledge that there will be Anti-snub gunboats, but you missed the part where it says heavy gunboats are [u]support[/i] ships. Keyword: Support. That doesn't mean they can kill everything on their own, they're meant to do it in groups. Hell, with the speed of their guns I'd be surprised if they could hit snubs at all.
I'm not really going to bother repeating myself with heavy gunboats, I advise you re-read the OP again.
Cruisers and fighters have already been split into classes. They're called Battlecruisers and Cruisers (Heck, cruisers split into light, medium and heavy cruisers. However some of those are not balanced properly) and Fighters have been split into light fighters, medium fighters, very heavy fighters and super heavy fighters. Each come under the fighter tree, but have different roles.

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[Pilip]

Bla bla...i think the right message that was to be put here is: let's everybody (or just me for that matter) have a kusari dessie but even smaller and faster than a kusari dessie (and i would like Kus destroyer guns and Gb guns too on it ) with an up to date 2014 design on which i could use multiple ID s without the Mean Nerf (cause it makes me scream in my room on my chair, so sad about it )

[Lythrilux]

Er.... ok. I guess you still haven't read what I said or you're not bothering to, so I guess conversation with you is pointless.

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[Lunaphase]

Anti ship frigates and anti snub gunboats sounds like a good idea to me. Currently the only thing a gunboat is good for is blowing up transports who dont stand a chance anyway.

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