Think of it this way, during combat you wont have time to carry out the logistics necessary to keep a ship fully combat ready. all the crew will have moved to combat posts, be bracing for impact, or cowering in the escape pods. And they probably will have bolted down anything that could go flying should the helmsman make a sharp turn, so someone doesn't get pancaked against a wall with the cargo flying everywhere. On smaller ships that have less crew this is even more true, they might not even have the cargo space to repair/rearm during a battle, and normally would require assistance from a carrier or freighter in its efforts to repair. Capital ships have large cargo bays, large crews, and are probably in a good position to keep things working properly all the time, therefore the non existent CR timer.
CR is a stat also needed to keep things balanced, before it was implemented a single frigate could pretty much take on an infinite onslaught of... onslaughts even multiple at a time because it could fight forever. I couldn't imagine what it would be like in a cramped frigate accelerating and decelerating, it would probably take a toll on the crew.
Ever see any star trek, or battlestar galatica? When those massive ships get hit the whole thing shakes. now imagine that in a small ship over and over and over for hours. if the headache didn't kill the guy driving, you would probably get shot to death, or the thing would tear itself apart.
And battles in real life last for hours / days because of the nature of the fighting. we mostly don't see close range combat anymore, ships in WWII usually fought from a long distance from their target. In starsector, if both sides were carriers with pilums and fighters/bombers, fights would last a long time. why risk your expensive carrier in a close range broadside engagement with a cruiser?
But if you really don't like it, with a little bit of know-how you could probably disable CR entirely, by removing the timers on frigates/destroyers.
Just my thoughts on the matter, [ unpopular opinion warning ] i actually like CR and think it brings a lot to this game.
In SPAZ, ships had easily modifiable armor, engines, and shields. In this game, It doesn't happen in quite the same way but the idea is still there. there are 3 main types of ships, the low, medium, and high tech ships. Low tech ships have more armor and use mostly ballistic weaponry ( think cannons in SPAZ ) high tech ships have less armor and use more energy weapons ( like beam emitters ) and medium tech ships are somewhere in the middle with armor and have weapon mounts of both kinds.
With the skill tree and the fittings you can unlock there, you can turn even a low tech ship into a fast, maneuverable monster or a high tech ship into a close range brawler with armor to back it up should its shields fall. The ships are actually pretty versatile, at least the way i play the game.
- an example of this being i can turn the conquest ( a fairly maneuverable battlecruiser ) into a very long range sniper with heavy maulers and Mjolnir cannons, something as maneuverable as a frigate, or a ramming, torpedo-ing explosive suicide monster.
I actually dislike piloting the low tech ships myself, but i find the Enforcer useful in my fleet as a PD support ship to back up whatever ship i am flying with PD refitted for more offensive power.
... I think you can tell i absolutely love this game.
