Grunker sums up the facts.. Even the nice chart you posted earlier blaine is just a guildeline, specs of those ships may change, i cant even tell wich will be faster in the list from i300 or drake . I am browsing the web quite a lot to find info on gameplay, but except that they are working on shields atm theres really no info. They are doing pretty ships, theres a lot of attention to details wich is a good thing and the main reason it make me less skeptical about the game but thats about all.
You have no idea how the matchmaking will be done, its an open space, so you zone in an area with your pals using hornets and a fully loaded idriss corvette with 6 ships in hangar for different purposes. In this area of space you get 10 hostiles players using aurora, how will it resolves ? are hornets considered the same tier as the aurora, will it match the idriss and hornets vs the noobs using aurora ? Will it stay on hold indefinitily till more players join the theater of action until theres an acceptable balance ?
Theres a few infos i gathered(
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/10/26/roberts-on-star-citizen-becoming-a-space-crime-lord/) . First he wants to simulate a real economy, the insurance will cost more if you go to dangerous systems , this guy played demon souls, not only world of tank, and he says that death means a penalty while not as punishing, its a significant penalty. Suddenly that life insurance thing is much more appreciable....
"you’re flying from planet A to planet B. Ben over here is flying from planet C to planet D. You two are going to intersect. He’s a pirate and you’re a merchant, so you’re in conflict. It creates an instance, which is dynamic and isn’t permanent, and puts you into it to resolve your conflict. It will allow other players to drop into it. You’ll have slots saved so that if you have friends and you’re under attack, you can send out to your friends and say, “Hey, I’m under attack! Anyone close by, come help me out!” They see that message pop up when they’re flying around and they can hit it."
Theres no mention of balancing, this sounds like a free for all, you and your friend will steam roll the opponents with inferior ships. Oh of course in a few months this may even out with everyone having access to the same ships, but at release not so much. Maybe in a few months he will also sell some extra packages to buy super capitals too, who knows, or less extreme, premium modules packs.