Low tech line doesn't need to be fast though, each of them (enforcer, dominator, onslaught) can flatout outgun and outlast ships of comparable class. They don't need speed because they are always running into fights, never away. It's the same idea with the slow 21 knot American standard type battleships. If the American battlefleet never have any intention to avoid a fight then there is no real need for high speed for tactical manoeuvre, any fight their find themselves getting into are welcomed and if the enemy really trieds to avoid them at all time then all then have to do is sail slowly right at the enemy naval base and force a battle.
Same with low tech ships. All they have to do is stay in a pack and slowly creep up the map. Sooner or later you'll have to fight that pack if you don't want to lose your carriers or other slow ships. And that amount of armour and firepower and flak concentrated together is extraordinary hard to deal with even with superior FP and speed.
First, I'd point out that there are NO battleships in the modern US navy. Did you know that? What replaced them you might ask, well, missiles and aircraft is the answer. Seek info if you want more details. I just point it out because it's relevant to the discussion at hand.
Alex has pretty obviously mirrored this development with the way fleets and tech levels are done in Starfarer. IE: older ships were "before the advent of modern strike fighters..." So we see a certain amount of relationship there.
However, you make a strong point. Older designs can be used exactly as you suggest. IE: group the big ships together and let them crawl along destroying anything that dares to engage them. And that works, rather well... against the AI. It doesn't work at all if I'm controlling the "hi-tech" fleet.
Here is why. Get a paragon, put 4x tach lances on it, and some of whatever else you like (especially some AM blasters on the front). Now, send out fighter/frigate scouts, and sit back and lay waste to the opposing teams scouts and frigs. Once you've reduced the local fighter population, and frigate population to effectively ZERO, you can focus your fire on the big fat armored targets slowly moving in on you. Once you can focus your fire, it's actually really easy to take them down. Mainly because 1 Paragon + assorted fighters + 2x LRM ships can put a great many LRM's into the air, and with a little proper timing, one or more waves will hit armor, which won't last long.
Or you could do what I do, and have 3x hi-tech energy based ships, all running maxed out Tach Lances and as many LRMs as I can get (10x tach lances total). I fly a tempest, and leave all 3 tach ships in fire support position behind the front lines. I fly around and scout out targets with my Tempest, and the cap ships eat everything I see from outside contact range. It's absurd how powerful this setup is, and how utterly unable to compensate the older ship designs are. My suggestion, as far as it goes, is to add a counter weapon (C+cannon please), which give some true range to ballistic based ships. Alternately, you could nerf the Tachyon Lance, but that would make me sad.
I'm not trying to argue one side is better than the other, just providing some counter-point. I happen to really like the ballistic weapons, the ships... not so much. Personally, I've experimented with giving all Ballistic weapons a 30% range increase, and expect for certain weird outcomes (machine guns, and all fighters with ballistics), it works very well to make ballistic based ships more worthy of fighting against their more advanced brethren.
As far as face to face battles go, I think the game engine/AI combination tends to heavily favor ballistic ships due to their ability to overload/flux raise the enemy FAR more quickly than energy weapons can. (without raising your own flux really high) Also, partly due to the way shields are handled, the AI tends to get into a lot more trouble when it doesn't have good armor on the ship it's flying. And doubly so when it's own weapons exceed it's ability to vent the flux. IE: any ship where all weapons on full auto maxes the flux quickly, which is really just energy ships.
