In some areas yes, but they are more a specialist choice and are not the most versatile of classes imo.

I think gunner needs beef to multifire 3 weapons, get more hull space, and slaves get multifire 2 shots.

Uhmm.. that's the point - some people - like me - like to do stuff in a different way.

Usually it's not that I end up much stronger than others on my lvl but it fits much more my style of playing - like I like being able to tank (regen/resist) even if I'm slower and have less dps and I like to control AIs (aggro management) and I simply love my BSTs.

With changes like these they limit the possibly (reasonable) designs.

I also did like (try) to work along with DMs on my Seer (DGs, roaming AIs) unfortunatly I cannot do that anymore (sure I can fly along with them - but not fight).

Swarms should be equally as viable as 2 slaves...

thats the entire point of RC giving more slots per level, if you wanted to keep focus on higher tech hulls and lower amounts of slaves, you would just make it so that every slave takes 1 slot and you get 2 base slots with RC allowing you to use higher tech hulls.

Swarms are generally fragile, can be defeated easily i.e. usually suck in PvP or against any DG AI. however they are good at ubers and PV single ai. This code ruins any low tech swarms that rely on the owner gaining aggro, as the swarm gets pwned by the collision code.

Big high tech ships are better PvP and PvDG ai, as they can tank more and generally put out more damage singularly. They are not affected as much by the collision code. BUT capships have been severely affected by the removal of any stacking. i've lost tonnes of shields and energy on my capships and now can hardly fit my T16 lasers + gear. I planned on using fighters as additional DPS but thats out of the question since i cant even get a set of T18 or T20 lasers on and since they are bank slaves that's screwed over any DGing i do.

Actually before the rebalance the "swarms" - if done like by me - were more efficient in DGs - that's one of the reasons why I put them up;

With "swarms" you can do passive aggro management - you jump into a DG lvl and have instantly all the aggro on your command ship;
with "swarms" you can keep the aggro - the small but numerous units don't catch aggro as a (dumb, clumsy and inefficient) big unit - like a (highly stupid) capship.
And as I set my commandship to tank and have lots of room for loot it was much better for DGing as FC capship fleets on the same lvl (I worked/tested (%&"$§!$# %"!§$#!!#) EFBC slaves myself and also did do DG with FCs of the same lvl to compare).

Still need a shield monkey. Though capital ships do lack the free space they used to. The extra space for fuel, scooping, fights/missiles is eaten up by the fact most stuff is bigger.

Which is why i said usually.

generally the swarm will take aggro first, then you take aggro. which makes swarms almost useless against ai that do high damage per shot, i.e. MF Reavers and make platties etc. more difficult.

Also my experience of swarms is from an ShMs standpoint, i prefer healing than DPSing. which is why i like the big clumsy EFBCs

I have owned a few different slave setups, including the setup used by Deadbeat when he was ShM with his helga+ armada, i generally found that against numerous AI my swarm was ineffective.

Whatever happened to the player poll? That should have happened at the end of last uni.

the collision code balances the game more i think, with the Bubble drones now in DM will be used more to block

never liked and will never like the collision code... it sucks

While it does add more depth to the game, it affects classes differently,
Shm, Dm and Fc in particular are impacted quite negatively.

Shm's should either be excluded as they have no resists and what regen they do have is already in use when healing something so any stray shots hurt alot.

Dm's, well we will have to see how the new drones turn out first.

Fc is also affected by this but to a lesser extent, as slaves and especially fighters are vulnerable, with the number of targets on screen it can be hard to target and heal these.

Other then the problems with the classes mentioned above this is a good feature as it allows for new tactics to be used, and uber's aren't just a matter of dps and healers it can actually take skill(well for some ubers).