It sounds like you are in a novice lobby . The game blocks certain ship and load out options if the lobby marked novice. It also blocks out any player above Level 8 unless Muse gives the player special permission. Novice players can join normal lobbies and have full access to all ships and weapon configurations. Everyone in a Novice lobby is restricted to the same ships and everyone in a Normal Lobby has the same access to tools and ships so please don't look at this as a higher level power advantage. It is there to prevent new players from having a bad experiences with ships they don't know how to use properly.
