Im not sure if I'm a huge fan of the tradeoffs you listed in your example, but I think we're on the same page in general.

For sure, pushing that shield recharge delay as low as possible would be awesome.

Gimme a little time, I'll do a data pull from EVE to get some inspiration on a bunch of the modules/rigs they have there that have upsides and downsides.

No downside. There's no downside with regular infantry suits, why should their be a downside with a pilot suit?

Bonuses

Those are modules added.

As promised, pulled some data on rigs and modules from EVE that have upsides and downsides that could be converted over to Dust terms. Really only for inspiration, but enough to help think of some ideas. If you're not familiar with how capacitor works in EVE, probably the rough translation into Dust terms would be:

Cap Capacity = Active Module Duration
Cap Recharge = Active Module Cooldown

This is a GROSSLY simplified translation, but Dust in general is grossly simplified compared to EVE anyways. Also note that there are a few other Rigs/modules out there that don't really translate into Dust terms for vehicles (lock times, ECM, ect.) so I didn't include them.

Rigs
Armor
Increased Resistance - Decreased Max Velocity
Increased Armor Repair - Increase PG Cost
Increased Armor HP - Decreased Max Velocity

Shield
Increased resistance - Increased Signature
Decreased Cap Use - Increased Signature
Increased Shield HP - Increased Signature
Increased Shield Regen - Increased Signature
Increased Shield Booster - Increased Signature

Astronautics
Increased Max Velocity - Decreased Armor HP
Increased Cargo capacity - Decreased Armor HP
Decreased Afterburner Cap Cost - Decreased Armor HP
Increased Afterburner Duration - Decreased Armor HP
Increased Ship Agility - Decreased Armor HP
Increased Velocity and Agility - Decreased Armor HP

Engineering
Increased Powergrid - No Downside
Decreased Powergrid Use - No Downside
Increase Cap Recharge Rate - No Downside
Increased CPU - No Downside
Decreased CPU Usage - No Downside
Increased Capacitor - No Downside

Turrets
Decrease CPU Cost - Increased PG Cost
Increased Falloff Range - Increased PG Cost
Increased Fire Rate - Increased PG Cost
Increased Damage - Increased PG Cost
Decreased Cap Usage - Increased PG Cost
Increased Optimal Range - Increase PG Cost
Increased Tracking Speed - Increased PG Cost

Missiles
Increased Fire Rate - Increased CPU Cost
Increased Velocity - Increased CPU Cost
Increased Flight Time - Increase CPU Cost
Increased Damage - Increased CPU Cost
Decreased Explosion Radius (This is actually a good thing in EVE ^_^) - Increased CPU cost



Modules
Increase Cap Recharge Rate - Increased Cap Capacity
Increased Cap Recharge Rate- Increased Shield Boosting
Increased Armor HP - Decreased Agility and Speed
Increased Cargo capacity - Decreased Speed
Increased Agility - Decreased Armor HP
Increased Speed - Decreased Cargo Capacity
Increased Shield Recharge - Decreased Shield HP
Increased Shield HP - Increased Signature

Translating to DUST is quite easy with rigs.

All you have to do for vehicles is add in rig slots, so 1 for a LAV, 2 for DS and 3 for a HAV.

The problem is capacitors and if they are not going to be added with the vehicle shake up then they will never be added for PS3 at least, maybe if Legion ever gets greenlit but even then that is a long shot.

Rigs are pure passive, so if its on the suit or the vehicle the stats applied are the same.

The one problem pilots have is that the suit can be fitted up and the vehicle can be fitted up but they will be fitted up seperately and because the pilot suit works in tandem with the vehicle then on a fitting screen we would need a way to apply the fitted pilot suit with the fitted vehicle to get a full overview of the stats.

A possible way is to split up rigs between the pilot suit and the vehicle, so the vehicle gets the HP mods and the suit has the EWAR mods for an example but still the problem is seeing the pilot suit and the vehicle stats together without the need for getting out the calculator.

If i put PG/CPU mods on my pilot suit that is a valid fit i can deploy it but if it is for a vehicle which is invalid due to lack of CPU/PG then i cannot deploy it thus it is useless to me.

Rigs in EVE generally change the CPU/PG of turrets at least and maybe a couple of other things so on a vehicle it wouldn't change much just like a rig on a ship.

The pilot suit itself may have link modules but if it contained link modules that alter the amount of CPU/PG (CPU/PG extenders) on a vehicle and i wanted to use that extra PG/CPU on the vehicle (upgrade a module or add another modules) how can i effectively use it if the vehicle fit is invalid and cannot be called in?

The only answer i can think is that with the correct pilot suit on you can call in invalid fits because the game recognizes that you are wearing a pilot suit that will make the vehicle fit valid or you spawn in the vehicle with the pilot suit on.

Like I said I would avoid having anything on the pilot suit that alters the PG/CPU cost/capacity of anything on the vehicle. If you want to have a rig on the vehicle itself which does that....sure, but the link modules would be something else entirely.

Bear in mind I just yanked rig bonuses from EVE for inspiration, obviously if you have link modules with upsides/downsides (much like Armor Plates, Shield Energizers, ect have) that went on the pilot suit but didn't affect the PG/CPU at all...I think that would work out nicely.

You could also have link modules that offer a lesser benefit with no downside. And example of this for normal modules would be Ferroscale Plates offering less HP than an armor plate, but without the speed penalty.

What will be cons, lower walk/run speed, lower suit shields etc?

I think it allows for some more interesting fits, as an option.

WOW. You Derp. Extra PG/CPU would be the FURTHEST thing from useless. Stay out of vehicles. You have no brain...