Reasonable and respectful, constructive criticism following the guidelines you yourself made?
Gratuitous jab that doesn't hold water given that the "constructive" criticism is made relative to very skewed and specific solo playstyle requirements. The Tempest isn't worth a S for Megas, but he himself admits not playing the game like most people do, or was intended to.
Well... thats a bit revisionist. Megas wasn't the first person to say that the Tempest isn't S, he just agreed with it and gave his own personal reasons.
I play pretty "normal", though I tend to stop once I have a few capitals because more isn't very interesting yet (fingers crossed for level 3 stations!), and I play on ironman so sometimes suffer nasty losses and need to deal with that. I don't usually use junk ships and industry because I don't find it very fun, though I've done two runs with it. Sometimes I'll do a carrier heavy fleet, other times not. I start with either the usual tutorial start, though sometimes I'll do single frigate for nostalgia. Tempest is not S class for me - its A.
Rubric
S: Powerful to the point that it breaks the game. Extremely OP; clearly better than everything else.
A: Unambiguously powerful, enough that it can be considered best-in-class. Typically the best option for a given role.
Is it powerful to the point it breaks the game? No. If in the early game there's a Tempest in the enemy fleet then I just either set a pair of Talons or a mixed interceptor wing after it, or 2 fastish frigates. It can pick off stragglers so I need to be careful fighting it and not let my frigates fly off alone, but then so could a Medusa to frigates or Aurora to destroyers. If in my fleet a Tempest is a nice powerful ship, but it does not perform any miracles. Phase ships are S class - they perform miracles, even under AI control.
Is it clearly better than everything else? No. Both phase frigates are better at capturing points, better at surviving, better against cruiser and capital threats, better at instantly ganking an enemy when given the 'eliminate command', and better against fighters! The Omen is a better escort and better against fighters. Monitors are tougher and a better escort. Scarabs are (or would be if they weren't impossibly rare) comparable. Lashers are better fodder (kinda stupid, but kinda not - if I need to distract an overwhelming enemy to protect another ship (say in an escape scenario or to save a cruiser from a capital), I would much rather use a disposable Lasher than a rare Tempest).
Is it unambiguously powerful, enough that it can be considered best-in-class? Yes, if we consider the "class" to be a normal gunship frigate. Is it typically the best option for a given role? Yes, if what you want is a normal gunship. But as discussed above it is not the best for all roles.
Going by the rubric the Tempest is a pretty textbook 'A'. Best in class, not game breaking.
Comparing it to the other ranked ships - the only others that were given an A rank are the Onslaught (A- due to vulnerability to flanking), Paragon (A+), and Aurora (A+). Can the Tempest do to frigates what those ships can do to their own classes? For normal situations/builds, yes it can. Does the Tempest deserve a '+' denoting that in situations it can perform at the S level? ... Maybe, but I don't think so. Think about what an elite weapon Paragon or a sabot Aurora with proper fire groups can pull off. The Tempest cannot match that.
I gave the tempest an A+/S rating, so clarification on my thoughts on this:
"Is it powerful to the point it breaks the game?-"
Arguably. Again my issue is that you should ALWAYS get a tempest, it's easy to get a tempest, and they only get better as you get more because they don't just have to be player piloted, and they're easy to replace. Not the easiest, but still simple compared to the gain to the point that it feels like if I don't stop myself from using the tempest I will only use the tempest. (my personal nerf would likely just be an OP increase and a rarity bump though).
They're not much of a threat to the player because the game doesn't throw packs at you, but I think they'd be a huge problem if you created a common early game fleet of say 8 of them as a fast picket running multiple variants.
"Phase ships are S class - they perform miracles, even under AI control.-"
I have never witnessed this. Could you suggest a build? I've literally stopped giving the AI phase ships due to the risk/cost in most scenarios. Often at best they're a distraction until they have to retreat, and at worst they screw up and get destroyed by a missile barrage.
I can believe they do miracles in player hands, but I have a hard time believing they perform meaningful ones. I can generally kill a whole bunch of ships of any size in an actual battle with a tempest, and I can generally do the same with a phase ship. I sometimes find the tempest easier to succeed with simply because it's easier to execute and stays in the fight longer (and again, just sending an ion pulse drone after the proper targets is easy and very powerful).
Again I see no point in who can 1v1 a paragon or some other kind of comparison better because it's not a realistic or common situation. Wiping out several capital ships and cruisers in quick succession in a real fight is, and it's something they both do more than well enough to the point that figuring out who's the best (almost certainly phase ships), no longer matters because it doesn't actually affect play anymore.
"Both phase frigates are better at capturing points, better at surviving, better against cruiser and capital threats, better at instantly ganking an enemy when given the 'eliminate command', and better against fighters!"-
So obviously I don't see most of this given I don't see the AI doing anything great with them. I'll gladly test though.
The only two of these I'd comment on are 1. Capturing points, at which point i feel certain phase ships are better, but again not in any meaningful way from what i've seen. They both get to the point fast, both hold well, both better than anything else in its size. One is easier to find and sure as hell seems less suicidal in AI hands. 2. Fighters- Fighters seem to slaughter my AI phase ships. They hover around them, waste their flux, and then get the murdered.
I will also point out that one of the reasons i put it on the line with an S tier is because it's very simple to mass tempests. If you mass paragons you'll break the game, but it's not realistic and by the time you've done that you should expect to break things. Massing phase ships is also hard. Massing tempests feels much much easier.
I don't know what this "AP" you keep referring to means.