Instead of immediately bucking the idea of fuel, you should really read the thread here which has quite a few interesting and new ideas on the subject, which are likely drastically different from what you may think of it as if you think it's only going to cripple AI and add significant micro to the game.
Heresy! All of your opinions are wrong!! Now I shall show you why by straw-manning your entire argument!
I seriously hope that if jumping away is not an option, there's suitable bonuses to counter it. Also I hope some of those bonuses are added to regular stations.
You're pretty much restating what I said while disagreeing with me. When resources aren't an issue there is no reason not to use the biggest strongest option available. Real life has shown this to us routinely. There's a reason prior to WW2 dreadnoughts were spammed and were symbols of power, and when resources permitted they were used. There's a reason even today the US has a massive fleet of super carriers and uses them extensively. In fact the only reason ships other than battleships and carriers exist is because of resource limitations. No nation has the resources to make hundreds of battleships and you need hundreds of ships to put them where they need to be, thus cheaper alternatives are required.
You seem to think someone chiming in with an "I agree" warrants a massive post such as yours. It does not.
Fuel is the single best option available for limiting big ships. The bigger the ship, the more fuel it needs. This is what limits big ships in real life. You simply can't afford to run those big ships so you make smaller ones to fill the gaps. I find notions of "horrible micro" to be absurd since that's the entire point. If you want a big titan, prepare to grind to try and keep it running. Don't like that idea? Don't make the titan. The ENTIRE POINT of fuel is to be an unpleasant thing that turns people away from making huge ships. If you don't want to deal with that "horrible micro" then stick to small ships since giant titans clearly aren't for you. As for the AI, not hard to add ways to refuel them when they're docked.
Personally I think it should be the opposite. I think ships below a certain mass shouldn't be able to jump, they should rely on a network of warpgates to get around the colonized universe. But it shouldn't be because of some hard limits, it's because below that mass threshold you simply can't generate the power required to jump the ship. Some certain extreme designs may be able to get a smaller ship able to jump, but usually only big capital ships would be able to jump. Having small ships rely on jumpgates or bigger ships would be cool in my eyes.
Glad you're catching up to what is actually one of the sources of the problem as quite a few of us see here - that it is very easy to field and maintain such ships for what benefits they provide. Related to that is the issue of 'do-or-die' where usually big ships either overcome their enemies sustaining only superficial damage or get destroyed.
You seem to think that making assumptions regarding me instead of addressing content of my post is sufficient to explain or defend your previous assertions. It is not. Quoting a post just to state so is somewhat rude and unwarranted, though.
Regarding fuel, I don't think it'd be necessarily a 'horrible micro' - it depends how it'd be managed. Balancing the fuel to be rare but long-lasting or making it very common but expensive would be enough (or, ideally - long-lasting, common BUT expensive) - provided that the economy and how easy it is to become rich would also be adjusted - would help here. One could just top off the tank for a small fortune and not worry about fuel for a long while. If people want to scale costs and risks and manage how much they fuel each ship depending on where it is to fly and how likely it is to explode, they can micromanage - but then it's an option they willingly choose.
The problem is you're being condescending with comments like "you're finally catching up" and then write a long post which can be summed up "I know you're just saying you agree but I'm gonna chastise you and explain why it is you should agree"
If you do believe I am condescending, my apologies - but do point out what problem you have with what you actually have a problem with so I can explain what made me write what I did, instead of just addressing a post to make somewhat rude remarks.
You have yet to write a single thing that disagrees with what I've said, and that's why I'm taking issue with your posts. You're trying to argue with someone when both parties are in full agreement.
But both parties are not in full agreement - devil's in the detail.
Nobody said fuel should be the ONLY limiter, the point is some kind of maintenance/logistics is required so that operating a big ship requires some hefty effort. And when it comes to combat, if you can field a titan there really isn't a reason not to. No smaller ship will do what a titan can do when it comes to combat, so yeah they are the be all end all for fighting. The only reason you'd use smaller ships is because you can't afford to use the big guns, aka exact like real life.
There are very, very few things a smaller vessel can do better than a larger one. Literally the only reason small ships exist in real life is because of money, yeah a larger ship may do it better but it's not worth it for how much it'd cost to run. There's really nothing in this game that a small ship would be better than a large ship. Exploration? Bigger ships means bigger/more sensors, as well as more supplies for longer trips. Combat? A big ship means loads of shields and weapons, can't beat that. Mining? Bigger ship, more gets harvested in one go and more can be stored before having to return home.
To be honest, I wouldn't find it much unrealistic for smaller ships to be better as couriers (less mass to shuffle around, general mobility), stealth reconnaissance (smaller signature, less noticeable energy etc emission) - substituting reconnaissance reasons for 'better ability to use terrain for concealment' those are the reasons why small units (and sometimes even infantry instead of mechanised units) are actually favored for such kind of jobs IRL.
You can't compare ground operations to naval operations, space ships are just that, ships. All you're doing is replacing water with vacuum. And when it comes to the navy, there's nothing small ships do better. Couriers? Just call them up, this aint the age of sail after all. Stealth? Submarines are the stealthiest ships on earth and they're also some of the largest, hell even surface ships like destroyers employ stealth despite being 100-200 meters long. Recon is done via radar/sonar (much like our sensors) and so the size of the ship really doesn't matter.
This is a misconception I have disproved long ago , as long as ships can match each other's speed they will always be able to face each other , no matter how slowly : http://oldsite.star-made.org/content/vector-analysis-tactical-situations-starmade
