As it is, I see no reason to brawl in a federation frigate over an empire frigate, because while the latter does not have drones, it can mount the same support modules and weapons while maintaining a much stronger tank.
Speed isn’t helping a frig much, as anyone who can aim at all will hit you even when taking evasive maneuvers.
Except that it still doesn’t make sense then why the federation frigate has less hull/shield, but has a close range ability vs stronger ships with long range abilities
I play primarily Fed frigates and I can understand the frustration. You are a large, relatively slow ship with short range weapons and below average shields/hull.
I would be okay with all of this if you got some eff points for boosting other ships with your generator/repair modules. Then it would feel okay to be a healer/buffer and concentrate on your allied ships rather than struggle to get kills in a ship not designed for offensive play.
as a fed frigate
you are a team player (NOT A TANK, BUT A BUFF PLATFORM AND A FIRE SUPPORT AS IN LONG RANGE MAIN WEAPON like laser or heavy cannon if you want to save your mates)
try to hit a solo frigate on your own = gg usually (if they stack resistance on them)
or just a warp gate thing lol
to illustrate how paperish you are(even with stacked resist)
about 3-4 shield hits and 4-5hull hits or reverse if you stack shield (WITH HEAVY PLASMA MK 1 LOL!) ← stack hp actually makes you survive more with heavy plasma fire idk why
what about the empire and jericho
about 10hits or so on the shield/hull but 2-4 hits on their weaker stat like hull for jericho and shield for empire etc etc
Don’t mind being a team player. But there are no rewards for it in-game. Killing ships gets you EFF. Capping bases, carrying the EMP…these get you EFF.
Buffing, healing, supporting…these get you nothing as far as I can tell. It reduces the fun for me to work very hard to keep my teammates alive and end up at the bottom of the score listing.
THEY DO GIVE YOU POINTS!
i get massive points when i sit in middle of games doing nothing lol
but only if your team is winning because
buff + team kills one person → + points ← imagine your points racking up
debuff also works like this
I’ve only played the T1 fed frigates, and I use it for support/cover fire. Using the frigate to head an assault will get it picked off easily so I try to stay back and pick off enemies chasing my teammates.
only diff between t1 and t2 and t3 with that frigate is the weapon you want to use lol
you can make it move like 400m/s possibly or make it tank alittle like emp/jerry or you can make it like 9999resist on thermal or stuff lololol
THEY DO GIVE YOU POINTS!
i get massive points when i sit in middle of games doing nothing lol
but only if your team is winning because
buff + team kills one person → + points ← imagine your points racking up
debuff also works like this
That’s a negative. Last 3 Recon games I played, I healed the captain’s hull and shields repeatedly throughout the game - saving him from death a number of times. End score: 0 EFF.
um to be more specific
you will only get score if your team kills an enemy within your buff radius with your buff (somebody may have a better buff thus overwriting yours and getting that benefit)
ah drones that attack stuff and stuff gets killed, you will also get assist points with it, so fly into dudes and use pulsar or like do something 
try to get your own style lol
you will often get very low score when you lose and very high score when you win but that’s just life of a fed frigate lolol or you can go rogue and find and kill other fed frigates with heavy weaponry like i do lol
This is my point. You should get EFF points for healing fellow ships. It would make flying a Fed frigate much less onerous.
hmm sounds reasonable but what does eff points do anyway lol
Being a teamplayer might not get you kills but it gets you wins so that more loots which is the big thing.
Since it’s a measure of how well you are playing in the game, it could do all kinds of things as the game moves forward.
Doesn’t EFF rating have a direct affect on how much money you make?
no the money is very random lol
Except that it still doesn’t make sense then why the federation frigate has less hull/shield, but has a close range ability vs stronger ships with long range abilities
I never said it made sense.
My ideas to make Fed ships little more ‘balanced’:
All ships gain (balanced) percentage increase in survival and restoration module effectiveness.
All ships have (some balanced amount of) base hull regen.
I think these 2 would kinda make up for having neither high shields or hull. Not sure how balanced they would be, though.
I kind of agree. Is there really any reason to ever mount a shield booster after Tier 1 (Where you literally have nothing else to mount on some ships)? Seriously, it’s hard to notice their effect, even with experimental models.
Your a space Zamboni hug walls to make them fight on top of you so you then have mines,drones and pulsars hitting them.
Problem with fed frigates is the absolutely ridiculous useless special!!!
I’ve been flying fed form the 0.4 release, i’m lvl 12 and tried all the stuuf in game time by time. Actually i tried each mkIII fed frig form T1 to T4 and result is always the same…no way! Fed frigs sucks compared to jericho and empire firgs!!! We have been talking about this for so long, at least from the 0.5 release on… 
I’ve only played the T1 fed frigates, and I use it for support/cover fire. Using the frigate to head an assault will get it picked off easily so I try to stay back and pick off enemies chasing my teammates.
In later tiers you can outfit frigates to be brawlers. Up close and personal support.