When it comes to PvP, ship balance is awful

One big disappointment I've always had with Elite: Dangerous is its wholesale lack of PvP balance. And I get it – the game just fundamentally isn't designed around PvP. It's something that's always felt… tacked on, or just there for the purpose of checking a box. But as a part of the game, it deserves attention.

One of the main culprits behind this imbalance is ship speed. A good case study here is a combat scenario between the Federal Corvette, an ostensibly combat-focused ship, and the Cutter, a ship designed to be more multipurpose. Assuming the Cutter pilot isn't completely clueless, the Corvette will never really pose any risk to the Cutter; the speed discrepancy is so substantial that no conceivable weapon loadout can knock the Cutter out before he's able to boost away to safety and wake. So, even if the Corvette manages to "win" an encounter, the Cutter can always escape; whereas the Corvette is essentially doomed if the Cutter pilot manages to best it.

This makes no sense from a game balance perspective!

Another case study involves the Corvette and the much, much more inexpensive and easily accessible Fer-de-Lance. I'm not of the opinion that more expensive ships should automatically be better, but it almost feels like PvP balance swings in the opposite direction, and some cheaper ships are simply better and more "meta" because of their balance of strong defense/offense and insane speed. Speed allows you to get into and out of combat situations quickly and opens up tactical opportunities that slower vessels simply don't possess. An extremely well-built, well-piloted Corvette may be more than a match for an FdL, but the Corvette will *never* pose a risk due to the ease with which the FdL can simply escape.

Speed is critically important in PvP, almost to the point that it's difficult to understate. Bearing this in mind, Frontier should revamp ship speed so that ships like the Corvette or the Anaconda aren't underwhelming.