I think this is a good idea in principal, but I believe there should be a mass increase penalty for every buff.
my reasoning for this:
2 ships of equal SIZE - for a simplified example 20x20x20 cubes
ship A: completely hollow (before anyone states the obvious I know this would mean the core and all systems would have to be on the outer hull) - 2168 blocks
ship B: completely packed with systems - 8000 blocks
obviously ship B would be much more powerful than ship A, but it would turn slower due to the difference in mass.
if ship A had NPCs to buff it, so it was equally as powerful as ship B, it would be capable of manoeuvring faster making is better in combat than ship B
If there was a mass increase penalty with the buffs, so ship A and ship B were approximately equal in mass as well as power it would be more balanced and you would not have to build an interior and use NPCs to have an even fight in pvp (with the same SIZE ships)
but you also would not have a disadvantage against the same SIZE ship if you did chose to build a nice interior with NPCs
without any buffs ship A could only have a fair fight with a ship that was a 13x13x13 cube completely packed with systems (approximately the same mass / number of blocks)
my reasoning for this:
2 ships of equal SIZE - for a simplified example 20x20x20 cubes
ship A: completely hollow (before anyone states the obvious I know this would mean the core and all systems would have to be on the outer hull) - 2168 blocks
ship B: completely packed with systems - 8000 blocks
obviously ship B would be much more powerful than ship A, but it would turn slower due to the difference in mass.
if ship A had NPCs to buff it, so it was equally as powerful as ship B, it would be capable of manoeuvring faster making is better in combat than ship B
If there was a mass increase penalty with the buffs, so ship A and ship B were approximately equal in mass as well as power it would be more balanced and you would not have to build an interior and use NPCs to have an even fight in pvp (with the same SIZE ships)
but you also would not have a disadvantage against the same SIZE ship if you did chose to build a nice interior with NPCs
without any buffs ship A could only have a fair fight with a ship that was a 13x13x13 cube completely packed with systems (approximately the same mass / number of blocks)