*facepalm*
I think we can all agree on two things:
By "we" you mean "myself and pretty much no-one else in this thread?"
Maneuvering jets are awful now/redundant (the +75% maneuverability from the combat skill and auxiliary thrusters hullmod both do the same thing but better)
Combat skill requires an irrevocable investment of skill points that could go into something else, although it
is a good deal.
Auxillary Thrusters costs valuable OP that could go into capacitors, vents or better weapons.
Neither of these give a speed increase, while Maneuvering Jets still does.
Not to mention that saying they "do the same thing but better" is completely silly, since the bonuses
stack.
The Conquest was OP before, but is now hands-down the worst capital ship in the game (virtually anything else is a better use of money/command points)
[citation needed]
IME the Conquest is still plenty effective. Sure, it can't beat an Onslaught one-on-one (even a Paragon can't take that fight lightly), but that's by no means the only tactical situation a Conquest might find itself in. A properly equipped Conquest beats up any two or three ships smaller than itself no sweat, and in fleet actions an opposing capital ship better not make the mistake of being even briefly distracted by a different opponent while the Conquest is nearby. (Try The Last Hurrah, it's pretty fun even with your foo' allies constantly getting themselves killed.)
Correct me if I'm wrong, but in light of their relatively light weapons loadouts and staying power, the only advantage to using those ships was the ability to outmaneuver your opponents. You can't do that now. There's really no reason to use midlines now since the high/low tech ships do everything the midlines do, but better.
OP for OP, midlines:
- have better shielding than low-techs and better armor than high-techs; their overall defense isn't much different from those two
- have a much easier time maneuvering than low-techs (Burn Drive is great, but it's also only useful when the direction you want to go is straight ahead; Maneuvering Jets is far more flexible)
- are just as cheap supply-wise to deploy as low-techs, way less than high-techs
- have firepower almost as good as high-techs
- can mount fewer weapons than low-techs, but actually have the flux capacity and dissipation to support all the ones they do mount, and have an easier time bringing it to bear too
tl;dr: Midlines are fine. You could probably make a case for midlines not being as good as high-techs and low-techs, but it's not like the difference is all that noticeable.