Q Ships are a distinctly British concept that were used as submarine traps. In WW2, they were superceded by simply mounting more and more weaponry on standard merchant vessels due to many factors. The response to this (both from the Germans and the US) was unrestricted warfare at sea in relation to submarines. It made Q ships completely irrelevant. I know a little bit about subs. My other hang-out is the Subsim.com forums.
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w215/ShadowWolf_Kell/SH4TMO-16.jpg
In ED, without their element of surprise, I don't really see the purpose behind them. They are still armed merchants. Cool concept, but we'll see how it works out I guess.
My goodness, the old SH days! The memories! Although, I've always been more of the SH3 guy than anything else. Always wanted to look into Dangerous Waters, never was brave enough.
Eh, right, gotta say something on-topic before angry mods jump at me again.
Space submarines would be a tad useless if the commandant has to pay the torpedoes himself and only gets one to two per tube. Not to mention that stealthy attacks with them are nuts unless the target happens to be travelling without shields and point defence. And you don't have to interdict them.
And I'd say, whether to bother about Q-ships or not, the Anaconda does a pretty decent job at being a trader and still be heavier armed than the pirates. Even the T6 can make its stand if properly armoured. Basically, it's mainly the T7 and T9, as I see it, that are lacking self-defence. You even can work around that by flying an Asp / Python instead.
