The sniper weapons are definitely overpowered though. The Styrix, for example, does about 25% less DPS than a Gauss but has half the flux cost and a faster projectile. There's a 1200 range HE weapon with 240ish DPS, which is insane since in vanilla the Heavy Mauler has a mediocre 120 DPS and a projectile slow enough to be dodged at max range. Then there are the 1100 range large ballistics, which have comparable DPS and flux stats to the 900 range vanilla ones despite outranging them and being massively more accurate. Sure, you pay for it in OP, but honestly I'd almost always take the Armiger over the Hellbore and the Efreet over the Mark IX even though it costs 8 more OP. Likewise, Styrix vs Gauss is a no-brainer unless you really need that 3 OP or 100 extra kinetic DPS for some reason. And for the Gardas there isn't even an alternative, in vanilla if you want a finisher at that range you need missiles, bombers, or Advanced Optics HIL.
Not that I disagree completely with the point (I said myself range becomes pretty valuable for the larger mounts when there's not much left that can keep up with them), but it seems you are making a bit of confusion here and there. For instance, the 1200 range GH weapons are large mounts, the heavy mauler is a medium one, completely different category. The 1100 large ballistics, Armiger and Efreet, are from this mod but are
not GH weapons (they are similarly balanced though to be in the middle between the 1000 and 1200 GH ballistics, so it's pretty ok to talk about them too, but they are supposed to be common vanilla weaponry extensions).
Also, you forget some things where you actually get the weapons to compare right: let's look at the Styrix vs Gauss example.
Same range (1200), the Styrix has 250 DPS at 1.2 efficiency (pretty good efficiency for such long range, but the DPS is kinda closer to some medium mount weaponry damage), while the Gauss has much better DPS, 350, but indeed at a much worse efficiency of 1.7 (that's indeed very bad for the Gauss). However the Styrix also shoots 3 projectiles at 350x3 dmg, while the Gauss does what it does with just one projectile at 700 dmg: that's
MUCH more useful when the target shields have gone down and it is now hitting armor. Due to how armor dmg reduction math works, high damage single projectiles are much more effective than multiple lower dmg ones: this means the Gauss, even with the kinetic malus against armor, can still be useful when hitting past the shields, the Styrix not as much (although it's by all means not bad: at that size almost nothing is). The Styrix has a tiny bit of scripted extra secondary energy damage, should be on average about 30x3 (as it's a bit random): helps keeping it closer to the Gauss and its per shot dmg advantage, but it's not much (especially given it's a separate secondary damage calculation, so it should get reduced on its own, meaning it can hardly make much of a difference against heavy armor). Also, the Gauss has perfect accuracy (meaning very low spread for its bullets) while the Styrix is only rated as good. Just put them close together on a ship, and look how the Styrix 3 projectiles spread (which, for what should be a "sniper" weapon, is quite problematic) while the Gauss' stays in the middle, pinpoint accurate: sure, it might be less flux efficient, but
not missing that pesky frigate with a costly and precious large weapon shot translates directly into efficiency too! If you simulate a 1v1 versus a Paragon you might not notice the difference, but in the real fleet battles, with all the smaller targets around, the difference is there and it's pretty relevant. Ah, and no, the Styrix doesn't have a faster projectile, both their projectiles have the exact same speed of 1200, so for what concerns that value they have the same chance to hit/not be dodged. Finally, the Gauss has a refire delay more than two times quicker than the Styrix, 2 seconds vs 4.2 seconds, which also helps making it more efficient in actual battle (a missed shot is much less of an issue - and much less infuriating - the lesser you have to wait for the next shot to come and hopefully kill what you want it to kill... not that the Gauss would miss often anwyay, given the aforementioned advantage in accuracy stats).
Basically,
the Styrix is either on par or inferior to the Gauss on everything except for flux efficiency (which indeed is a different case than the smaller gallant-railgun comparisons, where vanilla wins on efficiency too), and it comes at 28 OP cost against 25. Is it a serviceable weapon? No doubt. Given it's a large mount that only consumes 300 flux per second it's certainly a better choice for flux starved ships, even with the higher ordnance cost. If you have flux to spare, though, the Gauss is objectively better on pretty much all accounts (well, except for looks
). And yeah, 28 vs 25 OPs might not seem much (and it isn't), but it also brings the Styrix in the same ballpark (30 OPs) as the super Omega weapons (most other mods also put at around 30 OPs their own *** overpowered rare large superweapons, but that's them and let's pretend we don't play with those as well), so an "average" weapon that costs 28 OP might not sound so sexy anymore.
Granted, I do agree this is a case where the tradeoff is more balanced and both vanilla and GH have their uses (I know I'd choose the Styrix for my playership too: I just hate getting overfluxed and I find little fun in having to juggle weapon autofire), but as you could see with the gallant example, some other GH weapons don't fare as good.
Fact is, vanilla has a few unanimously considered premium weapons: the railgun is among those (and it was even when it was 8 OP, why it was lowered to 7 is puzzling to me). Another example would be the burst PD, that has completely dominated small PD mounts for years (other PDs have gotten better in the latest patches though, so nowadays even the previously pointless LRPD laser can have its uses... or so they say
). That doesn't mean a mod
has to have its own custom PDs at least on par with the vanilla burst PD, otherwise we'd fall to power creep in an instant and just contribute at making other PD weapons completely useless. But it should offer something that makes it not useless as well when compared to the burst PD. You know, the usual: more range, better flux, lower OP cost or maybe it can have some trick up its sleeve, like AOE damage that makes it better against swarms although still losing badly to the burst when put against individual sturdier fighters. The Styrix - Gauss comparison could be considered such a case, where yeah, the Styrix ain't useless compared to the Gauss, as it has one definite advantage (efficiency) even though its losing on lots of other stats. Other GH weapons are not so lucky.
And, in any case, it can feel kinda bad when a weapon that's not better than the vanilla equivalent still costs noticeably more. You expect premium, but you don't really get that, you get a sidegrade at best and more headaches when trying to fit that last hullmod in instead. Not surprising then to read people like Selfcontrol yesterday mentioning they don't use them because they can't justify their cost. This might sound irrational, but - to still take the same example as before - even if we were all to agree the Styrix is fine as it is balance wise, I'd then probably prefer to see it nerfed slightly, just to put it at 25 OPs as well.
* Nothing really would change balance wise, but it would instinctively feel better as user experience: the price is the same, you expect a sidegrade, you get a sidegrade.
* Personally, I do think it could very well already cost 25 OPs without the need to nerf it in the slightest, but heh, you get the point.