I meant in resistance+module configuration, not in raw surv.: you have roughly 5k hull less on a sigurdr than on a styx with armored+double galva; the styx has 4k shields more, giving it a good median of standard fitted 58-62k surv vs. 38-43k surv on the sigurdr, however in hull alone, the differences become really small, given, that the role of lrf has more damage, while it has no healing aura, which on the styx now was nerfed. so in the end, the sigurdr can hull tank almost on the level of the styx, while being a LRF; shields do not really count on empire ships, even if the styx isnt that bad in shield tanking.
This makes LRF hard to balance in T3 imho, because too much buff on LRF would overpower the sigurdr; it was until now similar with the styx: too much buff on engi buffed the styx, not the other engies. but with the new healing meta, a moving engineer becomes a lot more viable, since it has time to regen energy and use it’s heals, while the styx until now could simply stand around and tank with the passive aura and his hull resistances.
so I don’t really contradict you, of course the styx should tank a torp more, but in the end, they are very close in vivo, especially since the sigurdr has other means of evasion; it is completely a different story if you look at all the other LRFs, if you would compare “engineers to lrfs”, but if you want to compare the styx, you gotta compare it with the sigurdr, because they are the triple hull tanks in the same ship base. the cerberus has a similar slot setup for defense like the styx aswell, but is R8.
I actually see a lot of LRFs getting top places, in horrible matches, where you have a lot of LRFs. Since among 3-4 snipers one of them eventually land some killshots, sometimes the one which camps the most might even get first, but ultimately lead to the loss of the team, playing LRF in a camper style is simply often rewarding enough not to notice, if you have no other experience.
I can see that on both sides: I can see why my team wins too easily, and I can see when we did all we could, and we still lost with some LRF first place. Happens every week or so for me to see such a result.
Imho this is a problem in SC, since LRFs we got like hell, and many of them are not really different from the next, and you probably just take the strongest of the tier anyway and just switch between jerri and empire. There should be simply less LRFs and they should not be mandatory to get to engineers or other classes. From experience, players who get stuck in the LRF at start, will fall behind on understanding playing the game objectives, (I don’t blame them for it, but it is hard if you just look through a looking glass and try to shoot ships), especially if they avoid using other classes. So for me it’s not the ship per se, it’s the amount of them you gotta synergize, and the easy reward for avoiding confrontation.
And the class has no alternative: imho they could get an alternative use-case, or many of those frigates could be redefined into some other role. Because clearly, we could not just buff them across the board blindly;
Once you see however a LRF played with experience, you will not really assume, its underpowered, at all.