the thing you have to remember about baseships (about to have a nerdgasm) is that the original design for a baseship was as a heavy weapons platform, or a planetary bombardment ship. it was meant to throw lots of really powerful weapons at stuff, and take the beating you gave it, and it's primary duties were long range ship to ship attacks (the torpedoes can go further accurately than the artillery, since artillery can be dodged at long range, and has no guidance) and anti-station or anti-ground base attacks, and would always have a human controlled support ship that either carried lots of flak turrets, or fighters, or both. a battlestar is more of a cross between a battleship and an aircraft carrier, performing escort and capital ship duties, its main duty was as an anti-warship weapon, considering it was first designed right after the insurrection download that started the cylon revolt. being one of the most versatile capital vessels in existence.