Wolf Dog said:
Maybe the Stilletto could have a lot more capability with better systems. It seems to be relegated to a lot of behind the lines patrol action, maybe it is supposed to be a cheap fighter. Surely a Morningstar could also be less well equipped and be considered a lighter combatant, so they need not be so dissimilar.
See, and therein lies the difference between a computer and a plane (or, in this case, a space fighter). A computer is a box that you put stuff into. You can have two computers that look identical and have hugely different prices and capabilities. With a plane, it's a different story - first you decide what capabilities you want it to have, and
then you build the airframe
based on your decisions. The end result is much harder to change - yes, you can suddenly decide to use a different engine, but you'll need to modify the aiframe. It's not unheard of to encounter a
loss of speed in a prototype design after changing to a theoretically-better engine - there is a greater interdependency between components and so changing one component requires changes in other components, too. For example, when you upgrade your processor, you don't need to worry about not having enough power, as computers are designed to use the same power adapters. If, on the other hand, you upgrade the engine in one of WC's fighters, you'll find yourself facing a power shortage. So you'll upgrade the power plant... and you might find, for example, that the better power plant is so much bigger that you no longer have enough space for the shield generator.
The upshot of this is that while it might be possible to get a performance boost in a Morningstar by stripping away its armour, guns and missiles, you will not be able to turn the Stiletto from a patrol fighter into a Morningstar-equivalent simply by upgrading its systems. The Stiletto was designed to use those specific components. Had it been designed to use the Morningstar's components, it would have been a Morningstar, and that's that.
(one of the things I loved about Privateer was that it tried, albeit to a limited degree, to simulate the above-described processes; any time you upgraded your shield generator without upgrading the engine, you would find yourself running low on power at the most inconvenient times)