[Suicide Junkie]

Defense modifiers do favour smaller ships, but there are more features that favour large ships.

In unmodded SE4, you need 6 engines to move full speed. Period. Obviously, the larger the ships, the less space and money you spend on engines vs weapons.

The larger mounts available to large ships give more firepower per $ and per KT.

In most cases, larger ships have more survivability than smaller ships.
Take a pair of LCs (400kt) vs a Battleship (800kt). The BB will have about twice an many shield points.
As the ships slug it out, the BB will fall to half shields, while one of the LCs is totally burnt out. The BB is now facing less firepower, and gets an advantage.

Lastly, specialty components are much easier to place on large ships. Where 160kt of electronics and support components can take up most of a small ship, they are only a small fraction of a large ship.
You get cloaking, quantum reactors, full sensors and ECM (including armor ECM) on large ships without sacrificing as much firepower.

However, if you are facing an opponent that is using alternative weapons (non-slugging match), then the larger ships will suffer greatly.
Engine destroyers (but not in the next patch)
Null space
and Allegiance subverters
are the main weapons of this sort.

[ July 17, 2002, 03:00: Message edited by: Suicide Junkie ]