Ummm.... how often do you actually PvP? I've designed weapon systems in this game that can blast a same mass ship in 30 seconds, and it's just not fun even when you are the one doing the blasting. I've designed video games with actual doom beams, and ruined the end game because they are really cool to see once or twice, but they make the game stale as hell after about 15 minutes.
The 3 biggest causes for frustration in PvP in any game are: battles being too quick, battles being too random, and battles that result in an unwinnable standoff. The new shield regen mechanic ensures that the 3rd scenario is pretty much gone (which is a good thing no matter how much I don't like patching bullet holes), but the doom beam make the first 2 way worse. Not being too random is the one thing Starmade has classically done well, and battles being too quick only happen when one person was hopelessly outclassed (which is okay), or there were exploits involved (less okay.)
Also, while you may be right that more fighter fights would be neat in SM, you don't need to make cruisers obsolete to do that. Starmade cannot compete with other games in the Genre for fighters. What starmade CAN compete for is scalable fights.
