Do G-forces still play a role in balance decisions?

Yes, absolutely. We also have a change list that brings the tolerances back, because especially eyes-out g-forces, like going backwards and going downwards, are something that humans cannot endure for long. So most of the ships have already been balanced to allow less downward and backward acceleration than on the other axes. But we did not have enough time to actually tweak the g-force tolerances yet. So we're planning to do this in the future, which again will then change the combat geometry between fighters a little bit.