A) 3200 cargo makes it a bigger, slower, more vulnerable Behemoth. This ship would need to have something on par with liner armor to provide incentive over its smaller cousin.
B) More turrets firing forward rather than backwards breaks the theoretical purpose of the "ctrans" class. The only thing these things are good for is shooting a wall of fire backwards while they run forwards. They shine against gunboats but fail against bombers.
10% size reduction means that it's still about 40% larger than a Behemoth I'd wager as house 3ks are usually so small that they defy logic.
True that you can use them on the attack with 12 forward firing turrets. But to be honest the house 3ks are the best attack transports. I'd wager that a semi competent Ptrans pilot could break this ship like a bad habit. Let alone two.
The reasons for this are the same as to why a lone slave liner makes for a really poor pirate ship: Whenever some special needs Junker tries to pirate my firefly in a slave liner I smile, nod and fly towards him. Then past him. Then go into cruise. Then I'm 5k away and circling towards my destination while he's still trying to figure out which way to turn.
3ks have the speed and agility to better command the pace and position of combat. Ctrans and liners do not. They're high on guns but low on tactical options.
C) Transport shield 30ks have a unique effect. They usually recharge faster than a light bomber can wail in a snac at range. This is invaluable while you're whomping on bombers while desperately thrusting. Especially given that is your -only- reliable defense against them as ctrans are easier to hit than cruisers with bomber equipment.
Freighter shields capping out at 25k have no such effect.
The reason no one uses 50 to 100k shields on ctrans is because the dev team decided that transports that have 100k shields shouldn't fire back. A ctrans with a 100k shield dies and one with a 50k shield is going to have some power management problems. But a conventional 30k shield is not only fine but actually provides some unique advantages.
A freighter only shield would be a vulnerability, not a bonus.
Freighter shields are only good for one thing on transports: Slapping in a very very low demand shield so you can bring it back up with expert timing to soak up snacs.
To summarize my opinions:
A) 3200 is too low. Even if you give this thing liner armor the Behemoth fills both an attack and defense role rather well due to speed/armor tanking.
B) 10 guns firing backwards largely defeats the Ctrans shine: That it can spray back enough firepower to even slow down a gunboat.
C) Transport shield idea with power tradeout isn't a step in the right direction. A ctrans with a 30k shield can handle its plant well enough for government work. A gunboat plant will supply more power than you could hope to need. Transport shields offer tools freighter shields do not.
