I realize I'm giving a lot of feedback but I think the only mech should be the quadtank. I have no clue who the pilot is but I envisioned her as maybe quite emotionally attached to this piece of hardware in particular.
I appreciate all your feedback! I didn't think too much about her feelings towards the mech, but I could definitely see her having an attachment to it as she's also part of one of the few squadrons that operates that type specifically.
Thinking a bit more about different playable mecs, I'm probably not going to do that since I think it'd be hard to get them all to feel unique and interesting, especially with having changeable weapons already. In the unlikely event that I do end up going that route though, there most likely won't be any unique parts to unlock for each one since doing it for all of them would be a ton of work and probably not worth it.
This is a good point, I do really like the design of the main mech it's awesome. Maybe the option to add/remove hull armour in return for more/less speed/acceleration could be a nice way to change up playstyles without needing assets for different mechs, might be redundant though, the simplicity of just needing to choose the weapon is nice.
Colour customisation would definitely be very welcome though! :)
At the moment I'm thinking of having different engine types for better boost and acceleration, as well as armor/protection kits that have varying systems (i.e. APS that automatically tries to shoot down enemy missiles, mine protection, etc) in addition to the different primary and seconddary weapons + a third defensive/offensive weapon (smoke or EMP grenades for disabling enemies)