Mostly what I mean is balance for the PLAYER to try different tactics from within any one storyline. Like, government ships (from any government...) should usually be better than less-expensive civilian ships... and more expensive weapons that are easily obtained while a civilian should each have a strategic place... take blasters vs chainguns vs fpc's vs railguns... all are easily obtainable... but fpc's whoop all except capital ship mounted chainguns...
I mean check out this: (url="http://"http://www.evula.com/survival_guide/evn-outfits/blasters.html")http://www.evula.com...s/blasters.html(/url)
versus this: (url="http://"http://www.evula.com/survival_guide/evn-outfits/auroran.html")http://www.evula.com...ts/auroran.html(/url)
FPC's outdo blasters, chainguns are obsolete with fpc's, small railguns are mostly useless, etc. etc..
In essence, I believe that the user should be rewarded with creatively mixing and matching different outfits for different strategies, and each weapon type should have a distinct purpose that makes no individual weapon almost always better than another one. The same goes for ships. In the fed storyline, it is incredibly easy to start that storyline with a good used starbridge or a mod c. then, as a "reward" for being in the storyline, you get access to more expensive, inferior, military ships which, by all accounts, should be far better --for some strategies at least-- than your civilian counterpart.
Here are some specific weapon and outfit issues that I have...
weapons: (url="http://"http://www.evula.com/survival_guide/evn-outfits/blasters.html")http://www.evula.com...s/blasters.html(/url) (url="http://"http://www.evula.com/survival_guide/evn-outfits/auroran.html")http://www.evula.com...ts/auroran.html(/url)
*There seems to be no reason to use Blasters instead of FPC's. FPC's are cheaper than medium blasters, do more mass and energy damage, go MUCH MUCH farther, do splash damage, and are heavier. Why are blasters so outdone?? there should be some reason to use blasters... FPC's need to be nerfed or other guns strengthened
*There seems to be no reason to use a 100mm fixed railgun in any light capital ship. While it costs much, much more than an FPC and weighs much much more, it does less damage, fires more slowly, and is all around very sucky compared to FPC's. There is no reason even to add 100mm's as a main gun to a light capital ship, even if you have the space; fpc's are better. I think that light railguns should be lighter, fire faster, and cheaper and do more armor damage.
I also think that, as primary ships, small fighters should be more usable. IMO, this means making every ship that the player can get have at least three jumps, maybe more, and space to add more fuel... and i think guns for little ships should be a bit more feasible too. specificially, I think that hail chainguns, as weapons, should cost more, weigh less, not use bought ammo (why make a sucky, cheap weapon even suckier?), have longer range do more mass damage and take up either primary or secondary slots... ideally, one should be able to get, say, a wild geese lightning, do sigma upgrades on it, get a bunch of light cannons for energy drain, a bunch of hail chainguns for armor drain, and have that outfit be a feasible way to kill things.. reward the player for relying on nonstandard weapons and tactics.. so I also think light cannons should do a bit more energy damage and have longer range.. wouldnt this be an awesome strategy, or am I fooling myself..?
I haven't tested other governments, but I have found that, pound for pound, the military fed ships are worse than their civilian counterparts...
Compare the Valkyrie: (url="http://"http://www.evula.com/survival_guide/evn-ships/stats/civ_valk.html")http://www.evula.com...s/civ_valk.html(/url)
with the Scout ship: (url="http://"http://www.evula.com/survival_guide/evn-ships/stats/fed_scout.html")http://www.evula.com.../fed_scout.html(/url)
The scout ship (??) doesn't have more jump capability (which it should, it is a scout ship...), is slower (this part REALLY confuses me... a SCOUT SHIP?), costs more, has worse shields, has fewer guns...
Lets assume that the player got to the point in the fed storyline where they get the scout ship, and they got there in a bad used valkyrie. Thus the scout ship should be an upgrade... but it is not..
The scout ship is military instead of civilian, is more expensive, and given as a reward for doing a plotline (which should be a reward for the player...), is smaller, is made for scouting and insertion and such... so it should do a few things...
have more weapon mounts, even if they aren't used (someone might want to mount more guns on it...)
should be faster and one of the more manueverable ships out there
should have better shields, at least as good as the valkyrie
and it should have enough fuel so that it won't remotely need to get any battery packs... maybe seven or eight would be good
Also, it should be possible to get the scout ship MUCH EARLIER in the fed storyline... perhaps still while doing the six cargo missions, to enable the player to run from the auroran fighters better, as would be good roleplaying and good for the plot at that moment? I don't mean authorize the player to BUY the ship from the shipyard 24/7, but, as a one time thing, have the commander that talks in the wierd accent put it in his shipyard for the character to purchase as a "one time only thing". Then, LATER, get the full authority to purchase it normally...
Lets compare the Patrol boat to it's "equal", the starbridge.
*They both cost the same
*One is military, the other civilian
*They both are the same size
*The patrol boat is given as a reward, while one can just buy the starbridge.
These are relatively close, but as the military version, the patrol boat should be better, imo, especially since it is a reward. As a reward ship, I think this needs to be upgraded... at least give all of the variants more speed, another gun hardpoint or two, and have more fuel..
But ideally, I think this should have a fifth version, a "Bureau of Internal Investigation Variant", or some sort of elite guard type, which should have more speed, shields, weapon space, and guns. Make this one cost more, and That would be VERY cool... think of those black FBI cars in GTA3... the Bureau version of the Patrol boat should be like that, but it doesnt have to LOOK different than normal patrol boats.. Think of it as the high tech black ships the bureu comes in to catch someone. God, that'd be so cool. And all you would have to do is change some numbers -- it wouldn't have to look different. Hehehe. "Bureau Patrol Boat". Something that's an answer to the Pirate Valks...
Lets see... what else... I've already said most of my other things in this thread. cool. 
------------------
It could screw up balance though, making Rebel Thunderheads useless.