They should not wear armor at all. And it would be nice if they did not take part in the battle.
I think "character classes" should not be introduced.
By the way, the charactoristics, to which the ships have a bonus, is not enough. It would be nice to add more bonus hit points, power and speed.
I very much find the "bonus" hitpoints, power, etc and in general modifying hardware stats based on who's strapped in disgusting.
A machine is a machine, it's up to the pilot to squeeze every last bit of performance out of it.
If a pilot, based on their stats, is mortally afraid to or doesn't know how to push it to the limit - fine, make it so. Make actual stats less than the maximum stated on the craft description.
Otherwise it's eve online all over again where looking at a craft one never can be certain about what it's capable of. Why even have different crafts then?
