New maps, new ships or new components would be nice. However, the devs could also *simply* modify some of the existing ships to have more component choices from the existing pool.

Currently the number of component choices per ship is:

T1F: 29

T2F: 30

T3F: 29

T1S: 30

T2S: 30

T3S: 29

T1G: 24

T2G: 25

T3G: 28

T1B: 27

T2B: 26

T3B: 31

The T1G (Quarrel/Mangler/VX-9/VX-9) practically only has 23, because the Munitions Capacity Extender has no effect at all on that ship. I would avoid adding stronger component choices which would open a whole different debate. Comparable or weaker (but usable) choices could be added.

New Primary Weapon choice for T1G

1. Laser Cannon: Recommended. LC is already on the other 2 gunships. It is not a good choice on the T1G compared to BLC, but usable to try and could add a little variety.

2. Rapid Fire Laser: Not recommended. It is both redundant with LLC and BLC, and there is no precedence in gunships.

3. Quad Laser Cannon: Not recommended. LC is recommended and T1G does not need both LC and QLC.

4. Heavy Laser Cannon: Not recommended. HLC is very strong and this is a ship balance issue.

5. Ion Cannon: Not recommended. It just doesn't fit.

New Secondary Weapon choice for T1G

All not recommended to prevent overlap with the other 2 gunships.

New Shield choice for T1G

1. Directional Shield: Recommended with reservation. DS would add some variety to gunship duels. It shouldn't be overpowering against all the enemy proton torpedoes, Ion+HLC T1Fs, but is more resistant to HLC+QLC T1Fs or Damage Overcharge-Slug Railgun, which is a bit of a balance issue. Another issue is more overlap with T2G for plasma users.

2. Overcharged Shield: Recommended with reservation. It is a bit strong. There is no precedence on gunships. Adding this would also make Fortress Shield even less useful.

3. Quick Charge Shield: Not recommended. Too strong.

4. Shield Projector: Not recommended. Too strong since gunships already stack easily.

5. Charged Plating: Not recommended. May drive even more players to rely on HLC and proton all the time, and reduce variety.

6. Repair Drone: Not recommended. Too strong in gunship & bomber nests.

7. Engine Power Converter: Not recommended. Too strong, though it could be loads of fun!

New Engine choice for T1G

All not recommended. Mostly too strong.

I dislike this approach of counting components. I think the real question is, "how many useful components are available"? The type 1 gunship has a meaningful choice when it comes to primary weapon- burst is better, but lights is not an unforgivable choice. For secondaries, there are three choices- likely the game needs a fourth railgun. Plasma is a tough decision over either part of ion/slug, but it does do some things better. Still, I'd say that this area is the one that would need the most effort, as the type 1 gunship is all about railguns, and usually it will choose ion/slug.

For engine components, your only real choice is barrel roll. This is largely in part due to all the other components being kinda garbage. Does the ship really need other engine components (which will probably hurt the uniqueness of the type 3 gunship), or does the ship need its existing components to maybe be worth using?

Similarly with shields, where the situation is not as dire as with engine components, but still a pretty big deal. A fortress T1G isn't as terrible as a rotational thrusters T1G, but it's still a terrible type 1 gunship build in either event. By contrast, the other shield choices do show up meaningfully on the T2G, who doesn't have distortion. Maybe it's fine, with the shields here.

I think there's one excellent T1G build and two good ones. The excellent one is:

Burst / Slug / Ion / Barrel / Disto

The good ones are:

Burst / Slug / Plasma / Barrel / Disto

Burst / Plasma / Ion / Barrel / Disto

If you swap burst out for lights, you don't really turn on anything that lets you actually use the lights- you can't make the ship double turning, which is pretty much what a gunship needs to get the extra time on target to make a dps laser choice work well. I think just making things besides barrel into a choice, and/or adding a fourth railgun, and/or mild plasma buffs, would all give you more ways to play this ship.