Small craft efficiency is hard to determine as it depends on their hull plus possible armor value applied which I dont see plus the accuracy of the PD shooting at them
Empirical evidence during my games shows that small craft do not have sufficient staying power to deal enough damage (having been swapped to rockets instead of torpedoes) for their high metal cost
The main problem is that their counter both PD and AM is abundantly available on all designs for all factions, are cheap, easy to get via research and unlike their competitors, small craft have a diminishing effeiciency after each sortie as they loose their punch and leave their host unarmed in the end
There are a couple of solutions to this issue in theory:
1. Swap back from rockets to torpedoes for small craft
2. Use best PD nad or AM agaisnt missile targets to increase their efficiency in that doimain (but keep rocket/torpedo and gun for large targets)
3. Decrease their metal cost (high production cost is ok)
4. Apply armor improvements to them (if not yet the case) to gradually increase their staying power
5. Regenerate their losses each round
The issue with all of the above is that small craft are handled equally but there are actually 3 types and they fulfill all possible roles:
1. Anti-shipping
2. Anti-missile
3. Anti-bomber
The problem in the old balance was that bombers were dealing such an amount of damage that tehy could wipe put large chunks of fleets in a round or two + the AI didnt preserve PD nor AM at that time + large ships had very low maintenance fee back then and were easy to spawn
The AI has changed and is now preserving them so small crafts get decimated every turn but their punching power has also decreased
Upkeep cost has also increased correctly pushing back the amount of large ships especially capital ships
There is a theoretical advantage they have by being faster then missiles but they cannot deal more damage this way effectively as they also need to travel the road back to their carrier before tehy can strike again during which they are still vulnerable to anti-fighter barrage
So maybe a more innovate approach would be this:
1. Bombers carry missile fine BUT they have double or evne tripple the amount of armor AND they get armor upgrades
2. Fighers have double or even tripple the amount of evasion chance
3. No extra evasion when fighter attacks fighter
What the above would result to is bobmers beign hardy and able to offload their full salvo for longer while fighters beign able to survive navigating over the battlefield
The benefit of fighter now woudl be clear as they would not loose their stirke power rapdily either: they coudl act as true anti-bobmer and anti-missile platforms but even more importantly: thanks to their high evasion fiighters woudl become the ultimate counter agaisnt both bobmers and fighters trying to take out bombers
But if we look at thes right now: the resoruce cost does not seem to justify them not evne for Ashdars. Missiles and even torpedoes are a better spend of resources if the player has enough metal and if they dont, then either are an option anyhow and guns are the way to go