I would've expected ship design to follow doctrine though, as alluded to in the Mora and Heron's backstories (particularly the Heron being a result of the fighter school gaining traction over the cruiser school). A lumbering carrier like the Astral would need something more like the Dominator to hold the line, rather than an Aurora that plasma jets away and leaves the flagship wide open. The Paragon exists of course, but my impression of the Paragon is it's creation is more about Tri-Tachyon ego than an actual battlefield necessity.
Getting deep into theorycrafting the backstory here, but it's fun
Looking at it from the point of view of whoever (or whatever) was designing the Astral: if it *didn't* pair well with designs already in wide use - the Onslaught, the Dominator, etc - that would be a problem for its adoption, wouldn't it?
On the flip side, I can see it pairing well with something like the Aurora, too. Instead of absorbing punishment, it could use its alpha-strike capability to make enemy ships more vulnerable to the waves of fighters, and then use the breathing room gained for it by the fighters to back off and recover.
Speaking or energy weapons, I'm kind a shocked that a new one isn't going to be added with this patch. But oh well, I favor low-tech ships anyways to bring on the ballistic options! >8D
It would be nice if energy weapons in general had something over ballistics. The only two things I can think of is chain-EMP from a few weapons and exploiting shield AI with a cheap long-range beam, and the latter might not work anymore. As is, at least for unmodded game, hybrid mounts are basically ballistic, and universals are composite because energy weapons are usually bad, something to use if your ship cannot use ballistics.
I may at some point rebalance things so that energy weapons have lower flux costs (more in line with ballistic) and high-tech ships have worse flux stats but better shield efficiency (leaving them basically as-is in terms of both defense and firepower). That'd help out with the hybrid/universal mount issues. Not a big priority, though, since energy weapons already offer some utility in those slots, and I don't want to make them on-par with ballistics in overall quality regardless. The advantage of energy weapons lies in the hulls that mount them, so to speak.
Yes, it's a bit strange how high-tech weapons are mostly inferior to "crude" ballistics. Makes you wonder why did the Domain switched in the first place. But maybe we Sector savages are just missing something important about them.
I think it's clear gameplay-wise, and it's more a backstory question, right?
If so: the high-tech hull designs focus on mobility and shields/flux stats. Let's say there's something intrinsic about that design that doesn't work well with ballistics. Maybe there just isn't room for magazines and ammo conduits. Maybe the design can't handle the amount of recoil. Maybe there isn't room for enough crew to service the more maintenance-intensive low-tech gear. Maybe a bunch of other things.
Thus you end up with weapons that are more or less designed to be used on these hulls - worse in theory, but allowing the use of better hulls.
(Energy weapons also tend to have better alpha-strike capability - and their downsides are offset by the improved stats of the hull - so despite being "worse" on paper, they can work quite well anyway. Plus, there are a number of good utility options there, too - beams, EMP weapons, the AM blaster, etc - that can be situationally good on any ship.)
Also, what's with the poor Sabot? Is it doomed to oscillate between single warhead and multiple forever?
Let's hope not! It seems pretty nice right now - not a free kill, but definitely useful in opening up a window of opportunity.