A legacy class 5 prismatic with 9.7% increased hull mass is sitting in my Cutter and will never go away. For the sake of fairness the current engineering system should introduce an increased hull mass for shield generators as a new experimental effect. An additional 20% would make the following ships profit:
Dolphin, Asp Scout and Type 6 could use a class 2 shield generator.
Challenger and FAS could use a class 3 shield generator.
Type 9 could use a class 4 shield generator.
Cutter and Type 10 could use a class 5 shield generator.
Smaller ships could increase cargo and some otherwise combat focused ships could increase their multi-role capabilities. And the PP community could be happy to haul around 750 tons of forts and fit a decently sized Guardian FSD booster at the same time.
Dolphin, Asp Scout and Type 6 could use a class 2 shield generator.
Challenger and FAS could use a class 3 shield generator.
Type 9 could use a class 4 shield generator.
Cutter and Type 10 could use a class 5 shield generator.
Smaller ships could increase cargo and some otherwise combat focused ships could increase their multi-role capabilities. And the PP community could be happy to haul around 750 tons of forts and fit a decently sized Guardian FSD booster at the same time.