General question about weapons

Missiles (lots of) and Meson streams (I think Meson blasters are less accurate), and Shard guns (when using crystal tech)

I go, lvl 10 DU cannon, then to anti proton beams, then i'll do a hard push to null space projectors. I like to fight close and hard and nothing does the job quite like null energy!

Your lord and master (below Foamy) LordHavoc

Probably a hold over from playing SEIV lots and a dislike of running out of ammo half way through a fight I use Anti Proton beams backed up by Capital Ship Missiles upgrading to shield skipping beam weapons and torpedoes. I also like energy based point defence weapons.

I know the torps run out of ammunition but I tend to like small battles where I personally command the fleets and can save the torps till last. I also am a great fan of weapon mounts

If I want the battles to fight them selves I use energy weapon armed fighters and just let rip. Its not pretty but a score of such fighters will deal with most things especially as the AI doesn’t deploy or research Point defence all that much neither do the ministers if you put research under their control

I tech up a little in DU cannons and then go full speed ahead into propulsion so I can get to high energy discharge weapons. I also like phased polaron beam weapons as a go between until I get the ripper beam up high. Then it's the incinerator beam and finally the wave motion gun. Cranking the WMG up with heavy or massive mounts really gives some good range and awesome firepower. The ripper beam is a great short-range weapon, the phased polaron is a decent medium ranged weapon and the wave motion gun is a great long-range weapon. I also like the null space weapon.
Omnius

No other weapon beats the Meson Blaster, unfortunatly.

1.13 flattened out all the weapons. Every one I've looked at only gains 5 points of damage per level, now. Since some weapons get less than 100 levels, any weapon that gets 100 full levels is likely to do the most damage with research.

Since some weapons are heavier than others, any light weapon will beat a heavy weapon.

Also, check the weapon fire rate. Faster firing weapons outgun slower firing weapons.

This means the Meson Blaster:

Does more damage than a Wave Motion gun.
Fires faster, or as fast as any other weapon.
Has a longer range than almost every direct fire weapon, including the Wave Motion gun.
Is as inexpensive as any other weapon.

With 1.08, there were a few weapons that went up by more than 5 damage points per level, so they could eventually equal and then beat the Meson Blaster. Not many, but some.

With 1.13, that is no longer the case.

I have not checked every weapon, but most of them. Hopefully one of the next patches will re-rebalance the weapons, cause right now, there is nothing but the Meson Blaster in Stock.

Even so Phased weapons are better generally if for no other reason than their ability to skip shields most of the time especially as the AI will research shields to incredible levels given the chance but not do phased shields. I don’t know why this is but I like the edge of being able to ignore his TL20+ Shields when his return fire won’t skip mine since they will be using weapons which don’t skip shields.

Medium fighters with small phased polaron beams seem to be the AI Admirals worst nightmare since they also take advantage of the AI's blind spot with point defence even if they research it you almost never see it on ships planets and bases are plastered with it however if they have researched it

I'm using seeking weapon. Usualy i put all components i realy need, then on free slots I put quantum torpedos (or Capital Ship Missile), Bomblet Missiles and other different point defences, ordance. Then put maximum range in strategy.
But you need faster engines then your opponent.
With such configuration fleet from three my ships can easyly destroy any enemy fleet (but could be ordance problems at start).
Once, one my Frigate was able to destroy few enemy cruisers with higher tehnology level(i forgot to uprage/scrap it:)).
Big radius, lots of torpedos and fast engines, this is week plase of AI, but only AI.
I tested that ships, they can't destroy each other at all. If AI will use anought point defence...

Of course I have few ships for close battle, but usualy no close battles.