As to exact balance, like the how many lights should kill a heavy, we can argue over the numbers sure, but as a general principle, a larger bot should be vulnerable to a number of smaller bots. If they are not, then what is the point of smaller bots (there is none). I mean if we continue on that line of thought, why should a group of small bots be able to kill a solo Kain? Or a solo Termis? A guy got caught solo, in a Heavy Mech, not fitted to deal well with small bots (This fit is an option for him) and died, that seems fairly well balanced to me.

In terms of skill reimbursements, my opinion would be that this only happens if a skill no longer does anything in the game, things should be balanced on a regular basis, and giving reimbursements because people don't like the way it was done is not necessary.

As a side question, does anyone think that stacking penalties would be a better solution to dealing with those builds that stack for example x number of Rep Tunings, rather than simply nerfing the module itself? As far as I can see, the module wasn't the problem, stacking it was.

As I said before, you don't balance by cost, eg. if it costs 10x more it should be 10x better. "Upgrades" should always follow the principle of diminishing returns, ie, you pay larger and larger amounts (NIC, Mats, Whatever) for the same or smaller bonus as you move up the ladder. There is of course the obvious issue there that a SOLO Heavy SHOULD be vulnerable to a number of small bots, that is a legitimate counter to the Heavy Mech, if Heavies were effectively invulnerable to anything smaller, then why bother having other bots? Getting a Heavy is not winning Perpetuum, its just another bot with its own set of strengths and weaknesses, one of which is being vulnerable if caught solo by a bunch of bots to small for it to hit effectively.

What you're doing here is talking about two very different concepts and then talking as if they're the same thing. If corps and players choose to stockpile equipment to have an advantage, should that be nerfed? Of course not, the fundamental idea of a game like this is player actions have consequences. You still take note of how the players play the game and make changes to make sure your game world is an exciting place where things CAN change. But this was not what people were talking about in this thread, the question here was balance at the equipment level, and I can't believe anyone would seriously think some kind of balance there was a bad thing. Thats kind of the point of a sandbox game like this, ultimately PLAYER ACTIONS make the difference not gear. As a new player should I be able to grab ten others and take over beta? No, but I should be able to go and PvP (still with a disadvantage in EP and gear) and through the use of tactics and player skill have a shot at doing something useful.

Can someone explain how balance changes, whether they are effective or not, dumb down the game?

Well that is the issue, and what makes balancing so tricky, EP and Gear should give an edge without being too overpowering. If they are overpowering, then experience, or tactical awareness become irrelevent. Tactical awareness is one area where reasonably new players can compete with "some" older players if they have put some effort in to learn how PvP works, but if the gear gap is too large they don't get the chance to use it.

Where is my + rep button

Solo farming NPCs in an MMO is not that rewarding? What a shock. The best kind of content in a sandbox game will alwys be that created by players, which is why the focus is (rightly imo) on creating a good beta environment for people to fight over. New shiney stuff is nice, but the biggest thing for a sandbox game is to create a system where players are rewarded for creating their own content, not for killing X number of NPCs.

I wasn't suggesting that the T4 frame was balanced, simply that the way it scales is in line with other modules. I agree it needs changing.

Warhammer Online used a collision system that effectively only switched on for combat, you would know enemies were near when your gang started bumping into each other. I guess for a game like Perpetuum you would put collision detection on at all times on beta (for players only, not NPCS) and PvP flagging would switch it on on Alpha, but it would only apply between PvP flagged players, nothing would change for non flagged players. As to the technical feasability of something like that, I have no idea.