Mm, been doing basic testing in the sim to try 'em out, and I think the matchmaker might be a BIT strong for it's cost - I've gone with a p. standard loadout - cascades, dual hades in all the mediums, goshawks, and an eris, 2 woodpeckers and a whole bunch of flak in the smalls. Heavy armour, targeting core, aux. thusters, just basic 'armour ship with ballistics' stuff. Actual piloting has been mostly 'run at the other ship, turn to broadside'. Loses horribly to anything bigger than it, but absolutely DESTROYED every other cruiser I've thrown at it - including an odyssey, though that did at least scratch the paint. Obviously, couldn't test against carriers - they kite, you're too slow to get close.
The main problem that stands out is there's no noticeable downtime - you don't really care about the flux cost on the weapon, that just gets your autoloader big quicker. When you'd usually need to back off and be vulnerable to vent, the ship's at it's absolute strongest - sure, the armour's down, but nothing short of an onslaught can actually trade hits with it at that point. Which is by far my favourite part of it so far - how high can I push the flux for the autoloader, how long do I gotta wait before the next cycle with my armour down, etc. Nothing smaller than the odyssey survived TO that second cycle, but the answer was 'about four seconds'.
The weapons generally seem about right, if a touch high on the range, but for one point - they're too cheap on OP. I think a lot of the above would be less of a problem if I couldn't kit it out with all the guns, then spend 55 op on mods, AND still fit a couple capacitors in - that's with 10% extra OP from skills, but that maybe covers the capacitors and advanced turret gyros.
The cascade feels solid - but it's better than the mark IX autocannon in every way (Which is fine, the mark IX isn't exactly chart topping), but only 2 OP more - it has more range, much better turning, better accuracy, and more damage. It comes out to about the same flux efficiency. Comparatively, the dual Hades is basically spot on - it's slightly higher damage than a mauler, with much less range, and the mauler is probably too strong as it is. I'd probably put the cascades at around 24 OP?
Comparing the woodpecker to an LMG, it's got half again as much range, SLIGHTLY lower RoF, and does more damage - It's 1 OP more expensive though, which maybe works out. Would consider chucking it up to 5?
The Eris is a touch weaker than a light needler - slightly lower dps, less flux efficient, fires slower, but more accurate. But the light needler is already really, really good - and costs 9 OP to the Eris' 5.
The regular Hades is probably perfect, too - lower damage than a light assault gun, but more range and costs 1 OP more.
The cascade is similar to the Eris - compares slightly unfavourably to a heavy needler, costs much less. I'd guess it'd be fine around 13-14 OP.
The Goshawk seems pretty underwhelming for the cost. You could probably as much as double the fire rate and it'd still be fine, given the OP cost.
Now I'm gonna go play with the destroyers because that's all I'm ever realistically going to pilot anyways