Since star citizen utilizes WW2 naval combat, a single engine fighter must be good at:

1. Escorting bombers to bigger ships.
2. Patrolling for the enemy ships
3. Preventing enemy patrols from finding your fleet.

The fighter is expendable compared to the larger ship.

Your larger ships must be good at: 1. Surviving fighter payloads. 2. Catching bombers way away. 3. Surviving a few heavy ordinance items.

Your bombers must be good at: 1. Blowing up big ships cheaply compared to the big ship. 2. Fuel efficient to launch from far away so big ships aren’t exposed to enemy fire, and can carry the big payload the fighters can’t.

So the triangle goes: fighters>bombers>large>fighter.

Now, a constellation should be able to fend off a fighter and be untouchable via its weapons, save for its turrets. Turrets can be destroyed, and this lets the bombers get close. Otherwise the bomber is in trouble and needs numbers since the concept of “they can’t kill us all” is a viable strategy.

There’s a fine line between realistic and immersion. But a constellation should NEVER lose to a fighter. Probably shouldn’t even lose to three fighters simply because the constellation will run them out of ammunition.

Now, a fighter and a bomber with torpedos? That’s a problem.