Actually I'll post my suggestions here for everyone to see.
Light Fighters: Split them in to specific categories based on the actual size of the ship. Things like the Arrow, Hyabusa, Onuris, Wyrm and Liberator should be limited in shield level and weapon capabilities more than others such as the Eros, Scimitar, so on and so forth. They retain the smallest size and most maneuverability, and should be considered dedicated interceptors, by having their gun count downsized to 2.
Due to the change in gun count, give them some unique guns specifically for those ships. Burst cannons+Tracking missiles, etc. They wouldn't be completely ineffective, but they wouldn't be so impossible to blanket balance anymore. Nerfing their shields while letting them keep their size, speed and maneuverability would change the playing field for the overly small.
Next on the LF chopping block - Combat LFs. Scimitars, Manaslu, Wahoo/Sea Serpent, Eros etc - These ships as well as some others are far larger than the above listed. The best you could do is give them a bit more firepower while keeping their shields and hull the same, just ever so slightly changing their mobility to not be on par with interceptors, essentially making them a delicate little glass dogfighter.
HFs - This is a difficult topic to go in to due to such a variety in sizes and shape throughout the line. As you had mentioned, it's really hard to blanket balance both classes, and nitpicking which is going where in the field of buffs and nerfs is really tedious work. I did like the idea of swapping the Auxiliary guns back down to HFs to give them a unique feature, buffing the auxiliary guns to be a bit more effective in combat. The "Utility" Heavy fighters such as the Jackdaw, Loki, Phantom, and other larger versions would have the ability to mount two Auxiliary weapons, as well as a disruptor, whilst the smaller, more agile and effective versions such as the Bayonet, Paladin and the like, would be able to mount one and a hybrid slot, to choose between mounting two or just one and a disruptor.
This is all well and good, but why take it away from VHFs? It's to make the class more attractive than the standard go-to for all dogfights. To balance out the additional firepower, it's obvious the HF classes would have much smaller cores and much weaker hull. They'd be the real glass cannons of Discovery. They can move, and take a few hits, but not enough to sustain prolonged combat like their heavier siblings. Their mobility would certainly not be over the top like a Combat Light Fighter's would. They'd have the advantage of size, movement and firepower in exchange for more than likely dying to a single nuke mine.
![[Image: rherh3.png]](https://i.postimg.cc/Kj3ZvKXp/rherh3.png)