I think there is a point in a F2P game where you have to invest something to continue fully enjoying it, and by the time you reach R9 T3 games, I think you have allready spent many hours and can decide by now that it is an appropriate time to buy a DLC and get those upgraded T3 ships, or just skip T3 and play T4 which is more balanced.
A good example of how they hanlded the balance between alternative type of gameplay but not being noticably better than non premium is:
The Valor
A prime example of an suitable alternative for a mobile squad oriented play. It’s counter part Anaconda R8 is not viable for real play because no Gigas II, so it makes an originally weaker model interesting for serious play in a different way. It is not as tanky as the Styx, and if you solo with this ship with no team to back you up when needed, it fails it purpose. It’s only advantage is fast mobility to support mobile squads around the map, and it is not even the most suitable for most game modes and situations, sometimes you want a more tanky engineer. It’s an interesting alternative. Not P2W, but almost a fancy vanity ship with different style gameplay. It is not something needed to be better, for most players Styx is just as good, but organised squads like to ussualy have the main engineering pilots bring at least 1 backup engineering ship and Styx+Valor are a nice combo and you can also switch tactics depending on the map and game mode to equip appropriate ship. You don’t need this ship to be better, and you don’t need to fly T3, you could just skip it and go to T5 without complaining because T3 is for Aces, right? But if we are talking a hypotethicaly competitive T3 scenario where you need Gigas II on all ships and a possible 2nd backup, than how do you even expect playing with serious corporation or squad in the first place without investing a single dime into the game? Bottom line: it is not better in any form over the Styx, it just offers different gameplay variations, it’s not pay2win but pay2play differently - even Arena in Hearthstone costs real money to enter and you can buy card packs for constructed which is even worse.
Now, there are other ships in T3 which stats aren’t too strong for their rank, but it is the lack of a non-premium conterpart that would offer similiar type of gameplay. Notably:
The Desert Eagle
The crit power-house. I have to say, there is no nonpremium counter-part in T3 that would offer 2 cpus and inherent 10% crit bonus. This ship has a really nice layout. But I personally still prefer Nukem, I like the reload rate, heating time and asthethics but yes, DE does more dps. Here we could really blame the game for not offering an equivalent Empire R9 gunship, the Wolf has it’s uses similiar like a Valor does, but you just cannot compare it in terms of raw dps, the DE comes dangerously close to P2W. But this ship is a part of a good value DLC that is often on sale, and the price for unlocking this type of play could almost be tolerable, but… I see where the complaints are coming from. Similiar goes for the Tacklers, having no R9 tacklers is really out of place, there should be something at least.
As I said earlier, in defense of the obviously better T3 premium ships (which are just a few, and even less better ones in T4, most are of equal or worse stats) you could consider this as an “entry price” to decide if you really like the game and keep playing it, because imho no f2p game can survive without some sort of income, and I don’t think that just a few of these ships in mid-tier are breaking the game. You could try entirely skipping out of T3, but it is the most populated part of the game, so you can’t really ignore it. And if it really puts off any new players that they will have to buy ships to be on the same level with everyone in the midgame (that is, that they want to fly specificaly a gunship or a tackler, because everything else is rather nicely balanced!), well what did they expect? Might as well quit now, if they never expect to support a F2P game with some of their money. And complaining that someone bought power over you and you have no chance is just an excuse of a bad player. They bought the game and you didn’t, also you have other nice choices to play something else instead; you have the Kris-AE, the Kite, the Prometheus and Katana, the Styx, the Crus-S and the Anaconda-M. These are all great ships and probably still the best in their roles. And you can expect no less of a paying player with a premium ship that he will be good at the game, because he wants to get the most out of his investment, so it is nothing unussual seeing better players utilise the premium ships to their full potential. Also, since they maxed out all regular ones these also offer a bonus to free sinergy, and, well, you paid real money for them, it would be wasteful not to use them now.
It’s not full P2W because serious gamers do it, but those that actually bought the game DLCs unlocked additional content to play (like additional races in SW:TOR), you could compare it to a demo or a free trial. And I said, it’s not even that bad in the whole game, you don’t really have to play the most powerful gunship or tackler in T3, you can just play an ecm or other classes and screw them over, or go to T4/T5 and there will still be a room for you in a competitive team even in T3, you will just have less variety in your gameplay choices.
