This is started from an earlier thread that talked about having weapons built into utility devices so it is not as much of a loss to equip them.

After thinking about that awhile I think that is more of a bandage of what really needs to be done. Currently the smallest cost of equipping something is one small port. Instead of making these hybrid devices to modify the the lowest cost increment of one small port, lower what one small port stands for. In other words, make all ships give around 5-15 times more ports but increase the amount of ports each item takes up accordingly. This would allow the cost of equipping a certain item to be more fair and allow for unique items that would be interesting to have but are not worth the current one small port cost.

So the basics of this is give the ships more ports but, (for example) make a Screamer Rocket launcher take up three ports on a Rag. Which would theoretically have up to fifteen ports.

Its an interesting solution and I'm certain it will cause lots of debates and arguments.

I'm not against more ports. Though I think it should be limited some how. Maybe by the ships traditional role. For example a ship traditionally used in mining could have the extra ports but they could be limited/arranged in such a fashion that you wouldn't be able to turn it into a super tank.

Define: Grid.

For example a Behemouth would have the same specs it has now except now it has 12 large ports. It can equip two Deniphase mining beam just like it can now since they would now take up 5 large port slots each and be left with 2 large ports for utility devices. Ships would fill the same role they fill now but there would be more options for custimization.

I think it needs some fleshing out/fine tuning... but it isn't a bad idea.