for ship size have ti relative to the encounter power, like a 15m encounter would be a real small ship while some 5b encounter wouild be worth it for larger players
you could have a basttel over like a ship or something...the harder the encounter the more valuable the ship, and your garunteed to get it, not like in boarding where ships tend to blow themselves away lol
i think it dosent really matter a whole lot.... this server goes on forever so if someon wants to devote teh tiem requitred tyo go form last too # 1 then they should be able to do it. giving them boosts and ect and slowing down players highger up dosent make much sense to me, if someone wnaqts to reach teh top then thedy can sooner or later.