Penalties on death? Pls no. It will be pain for not powertraders. Right now penalties is just fine for snubs (new full ammo costs much), for GBs and Cruisers is enough (CDs,CMs, regens), for BS maybe not much. buff its bat/bot numbers and here you go.
Faster gun speeds? Yea sure. this will make fight more less fair. when you dont need to be super pro to actally win.
faster cap guns? nah. they fine at that speed. make em less powerful (exept GB guns) to make capfight longer.
about 'snub fight too long' - nerf bats/bots by 30-50%, Nuclear/Screamer dmg by ~20%, fix Missiles already and give us something more then just armor upgrade to choose (shield regen/recharge/capacity upgrades, powercore regen/capacity upgrades, agility/speed upgrades) and snub fight will be more interesting and different then now.
also fix CD killing missiles too. we have CMs for that already.