That is good to know. So basics are...

Missiles

• .25% speed
• 90% accuracy

Beam

• .33% speed
• 100% accuracy

Kinetic

• 100% speed
• 80% accuracy

So... in 12 seconds,  assuming M:10, B:8 and K:4 damage (top of the line Age of War tech each), knowing that a miss isn't a portion of damage but 0%.... on average

Missiles: 3 shots * 10 damage * .9 = 27 damage

Beam: 4 shots * 8 damage * 1 = 32 damage

Kinetic: 12 shots * 4 damage * .8 = 38.4

So I guess in the end, with one gun, Kinetic really is the highest damage total, with beam next and missile lowest. If I add in the mass %, I can get...

Missile: 1 (16.2 Mass)

Beam: 1.125 (14.4 Mass)

Kinetic: 1.93 (8.4 Mass)

That means in 12 seconds, equal mass I am doing

Missile: 27 Damage

Beam: 36 Damage

Kinetic: 74.112 Damage

OK, so after running these numbers (doing it here so someone else might be able to look it over), Kinetic is incredibly powerful overall. It does a lot more damage per second, per mass than either of the other two. Beam is better than missile, faster, more accurate makes it do more damage reliably, while missiles really do fall in last place by quite a bit. Kinetic does 2.75x more damage on average over Missile.

Thanks for the info, helps a lot. Might I know where you found it out?

Ahh, ok, good to remember about the distance. Forgot all about that.

Costs and Maintenace values have changed alot with Crusade. Kinetics are now the cheapest to manufacture for example. (not looked at them all in detail)

Very helpful information, thanks.

Also to be considered are the various support mods that can increase fire rate, accuracy, etc.  I've not run the numbers on this yet. 

My typical strategy involves using Escorts and Capital ships for the defender/attacker doctrine.  Escorts are loaded up with defenses, with the remaining capacity allocated to cheap and efficient Kinetic weapons.  These are good because defenders are the most likely to die, so you waste fewer resources and can replenish them faster.  It also keeps them closer range to their targets so they are more likely to draw fire. 

Capital ships I max out with beam weapons.  Because they shouldn't be taking much fire, you can load on lots of these, spending significant elerium for the more powerful upgraded versions, without as much fear of losing the investment.  

Once I have the tech, I also include a few support ships carrying mostly Fleet bonus mods, such as fleet shields & point defense, fleet beam enhancements to maximize DPS, fleet movement, and a few missiles for good measure. 

Tet - do fleet rate of fire mods stack?  I've found that beam damage does stack (each instance increases all beam damage by 25%) and you can get some absurd damage values from this.  i've not been able to test if rate of fire stacking works, however.  if so, missiles are clearly OP. 

Including what was already talked about you need to adapt the right defenses to the attackers while adapting your attack to not match their defense. Guns to armor, and beams to shields. Point defense to missiles.

Thanks zu.  This isn't quite what I was referring to, as I was thinking of the attack speed support modules - which if they stack could give nearly infinite attack speed. 

But it looks like this is a problem even without the support mod exploit.  it's very disappointing they are not addressing these severe issues -- I really want to like this game, but it's terribly imbalance and exploitable.