I think it's common knowledge that some weapon systems are better in the hands of the player. Whilst I think that is a good thing, its sometimes for the wrong reasons, as the AI has a hard time using some weapons effectively, even when they are great systems. Today I will list some examples and make some suggestions to make AI controlled fleets even scarier then they already are.
Phase Lances: One of the best energy weapons in the game, this system can almost instantly eat trough armour and hull with very little counterplay, since it is a beam. However the AI struggles to use it on ships that can't reduce its cooldown because shooting it on shields is often ineffective with its lack of hard flux generation and overall poor flux efficiency vs shields.
Suggestion: Make the AI use it as a High Explosive weapon (it uses missiles such as Harpoon MRMs and Breacher SRMs very efficiently) unless High Scatter Amplifier is installed (I dont think HSA is very good but it does fix the hard flux issue). This would pose a problem in ships that only have phase lances, or phase ships that didn't have a problem using it in the first place, but I would like to address that problem in a later suggestion.
Sabot SRMs: One of the best missiles in the game, sabots make fast cruisers able to pose a real threat vs capital ships with superior stats and weapons, with its amazing kinetic burst. However with the very long range they have, and the slow and vulnerable projectile, the AI usually sends sabots to be swatted by PD or kited, when the player can get up close and get full usage of the warheads.
Suggestion: "Nerf" its range, which I believe would actually be a buff to the weapon system, at least when in the AI's hands. I believe 500-700 range would be the sweet spot. Unsure if you could make the AI not use them unless in QCQ, whilst retaining the range, but that would also work. This is very anecdotal, but the AI also seems to be more trigger-happy with the Medium slot variant, whereas it will use the small versions more sparingly and usually at close range (this might just be because smaller ships usually have less range to begin with, so they are usually closer to their targets)
Proximity Charge Launcher: Same problem as the Sabots, plus the AI likes to shoot these at shields non stop, which isnt bad but it is a lot of wasted damage when compared what it would do vs armour and hull
Light, Light Dual and Heavy Machinegun: Some of the best CQC kinetic weapons in the game, yet they are point defense instead of anti shield, and will wonder off to swat down missiles when I think they'd be better off hammering shields. This is why I find them to be most effective on ships like Falcons where they cant get distracted and turn away from their targets because the slot is fixed forwards. The autofire also seems keen on firing HMGs on targets with their shield down, moreso then other kinetic weapons, which I believe its related to PD AI, but that's also anecdotal.
Suggestion: Remove their PD AI, make them anti shield, I think that would improve their effectiveness.
Furthermore I think it would be very fun to have the option to override the default AI for weapon groups and customize it, as in, being able to set a weapon group to act like anti shield, anti hull or both. That would allow the player to build more specialized designs, such as having a Ion Pulser only fire when shields are down for maximum EMP damage, assigning low alpha energy weapons such as the Pulse Laser prioritize shooting at shields since it wont do much armour damage, assigning high alpha energy weapons such as mining blasters and antimatter blasters to act like anti hull weapons, or even using PD weapons for things other then PD.
