what is the point

Welcome to High level weapons not being worth the research you put into them. I'll even go so far as to say it's the same way in Balance Mod.

Indeed... I thought I had found an exception to that rule with the Incinerator Beam in Balance Mod, but a later version of the mod nerfed even that weapon.

I've actually never made any changes to the Incinerator Beam. But in comparison to the other High-Energy Discharge Weapons - it doesn't have much of a role outside of the Small IB which is a decent direct fire weapon for ground combat versus Weapon Platforms with Emissive Armor. It could probably use a damage boost.

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Space Empires Depot | SE:V Balance Mod

I think most of the high end weapons need damage boosts. They take more RP per level plus the RPs needed to gain access to them and they seem mediocre at best to some of the more basic weapons. The exception being the previously broken Meson Canons in stock.

Are you sure? I could've sworn I saw a significant range decrease after installing an update. Maybe I'm getting Stock and Balance Mod confused...