Not restarting the points vs pl debates, but I don't see how a 'balanced' system would always mean that swarms were better than big ships. If it were balanced and even fight should be an even fight.
ACtA has issue not due to the nature of a 'balanced' pl system but due to the nature of its critical chart. The same crit on a low pll ship does not take out a proportional amount of firepower as it does on a high pl ship. This is largely due to it taking out 'arcs' rather than weapon lines...or better yet reducing weapon lines by a set number of AD. This way the larger number of AD available to some high pl ships would give them some endurance.
Of course that system does not deal with the fact that some AD are better than others and so you tend to have fewer of them. But I hear some crits may remove traits in next ed which is another way of evening things out some.
Anyway, just saying it has nothing to do with 'balance' in this case (points or pl). It has to due with higher pl ships not having proportionally higher critical hit resistance.
Ripple
