I think the development of the cruiser will be split in two directions, as it has been suggested. I think that if cruisers were to be used in an anticap ship role, then the primary quality would be that the main beam has a very long range, and second has high damage. Range is important when fighting ships that are far larger than the cruiser, allowing it to fight outside of the range of the enemies anit ship beams and thus avoid being taken out by the supirior number and power of the beams on the larger vessel.
By taking this approach, the cruiser would serve an invaluable supporting role, both in large fleet engagments, and even in strike missions.
At the same time cruisers that are built to take on fighters and bombers would also have a very useful prupose. Not only can they be important in convoy escort, but they can prove crucial in providing additonal protection for larger warships, which thend to balance antiship capabilities with anti fighter capabilites. In this role the vessel should probably one have one ter shalsher at the most, for use against easy targets like freighters.
All in all I do not believe that the death of the cruiser has come, but that only an evolutionary stage has arrived where ships are built more to play specific roles and thus work together to protect each other, rather than every ship trying to do every role.
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