I agree, I wouldn't like to see the biggest ships popping like popocorn all over the universe. Rare and lasting, that's the way I like them.

i think the popcorn part would go to the fighters all over the place.

That would be nice, why not. Just not the battleships. And I agree about the upgrades.

It would be nice to hear from a dev about this, but I think it was mentioned that the travel from one system to the other may take like 10 minutes. For the defender naturally it may take much less to bring the reinforcements from other planets of the same system...

It'll likely depend on the situation. If your shipyards are in one solar system and the battle is happening in another, that battleship is toast. If you've established a beachhead in that other system with shipyards, you may be able to build a new battleship and get it to the battle in time. However, that assumes the planet where the battle is taking place is fairly closeby. If it's on the other side of the system, the odds aren't too good.

Depends on the ships involved, it's kinda hard to say. It's longer than 15 sec. (or at least seems that way) but I haven't ever timed it. 

is the tactics involved so great a deptph that if I circle the enemy battleship with my own hitting it from all sides and forcing it to turn etc will mine win with less damage than a head on frontal asault?

15 second capital ship battles and instant EAW style building times has me worried.

If Sins is to live up to it's "epic" charter than battles should be large scale and long. Long battles are always more exciting, giving you (and the enemy) a chance to make numerous tactical decisions that could see the outcome of the battle shift numerous times before a conclusion.

I remember playing Star Trek: Armada 2, no strategy involved whatsoever, just build a massive fleet of ships, and send them against another massive fleet of ships, and 10 seconds later, he with the biggest fleet wins...dull.

15 second capital ship battles and instant EAW style building times has me worried

If that is true (which I doubt) than we must pray that the long transit times balance it out.

We will just have to wait and see the beta(well you will, since i have little chance of having it). Then balance issues could be truely talked about and fixed, the game is still months away, changes can always be made.

the fighters should be the popcorn, lasting 15 seconds in a 1v1
frigates should last maybe a minute or two
cap ships at least 3
and the flagship (if it so exists) lasting 5-7 at the least

thats what I want to see.

Matters how much other stuff is hitting them.

We're talkinga about 1:1 battles. Naturally a battleship can pop in 15 secs if it is bobarded by 4 others. I agree with Schem about the length.

But we don't know if space environments are going to be employed. ie asteroid fields or nebulae. Asteroids could collide with your ship at the wrong moment and nebular gas could have acidic or electromagnetic effects on your ships hull or shields.

But I must also agree with the ninja, big ships, mono e mono should have truly epic shooting wars, definitely 5-7 minutes for a flagship should it so exist, cap ships probably more 3 1/2 to 4 minutes IMO but thats just me.

Another thing that could affect the length of a battle is the technology and races involved. A TEC ship (More specifically the Kol class) could activate its adaptive forcefield and survive much longer. Any battle that involves the Advent may or may not be dramatically shortened by their advanced energy cannons. And the Vasari have a major tech advantage, although I haven't seen much in the way of weapons for them. So the length of a battle wouldn't stay rigid, but as long as it hovers around or about Schematicsninja's estimate it will rock.