Hey, just wanted to report that I've been testing out some ideas which appear to be working thematically.
Basically, Beams lack two major things, if they're going to work without Hard Flux.
1. They need a mechanic where they're at least OK for assault roles.
Making them ultra-efficient makes them pretty ubiquitous weapons (although I think everybody would be shocked how far you have to go, with Vanilla's current mechanics; essentially, a Tac Laser is nearly-free at that point).
Giving them Hard Flux makes them too attractive for kiting (at 1000+ range). It'd work if Beams were largely within the 600-800 range, but 1000 plus bonuses is not all right.
So, what I've done is given them scalar damage, based on range vs. max range. The formula I'm using is:
float theRangeMult = Math.min(Math.max((maxRangeSquared / MathUtils.getDistanceSquared(beam.getTo(), beam.getFrom()))-1f,0f),3f);
This gives a range scalar on damage that can range from 0 to 3 (at < 25% of maxRangeSquared) and this is added to the conventional damage number.
This, along with some efficiency changes in general and removal of the Beam vs. Armor nerf, got to a pretty happy place, even at relatively-low damage numbers. The effect is that Beams start to become reasonably-effective at belly-button ranges, but are otherwise essentially unchanged in their mechanics.
2. They feel less-differentiated than they should; this is a problem with the High Tech weapons in general, now that a lot more ships may be considering them as part of their portfolio.
So, what I've tried out recently is pretty straightforward:
PD, LRPD and Mining Laser have been switched to HIGH_EXPLOSIVE; this gives them a secondary role as armor-killers (and, in particular, makes them more relevant vs. fighters while losing nothing against missiles).
Tachyon Lance and Phase Beam are HIGH_EXPLOSIVE with EMP damage additional. This makes them devastating vs. unshielded targets, and the change in mechanics outlined above makes the Tachyon Lance fierce up close (but does little for the Phase Beam, which I have at 450 range, in exchange for better burst DPS in general).
Tac Laser, Graviton and HIL are now KINETIC; at each tier, there's an option to efficiently trade Soft Flux with opponents, which feels like Support, but without much Armor-killing power. This is much more noticeable in big scrums and late-game fights where Beams' range advantages are quite a bit less important (which is usually where, in Vanilla, I drop most Beams entirely).
The Burst weapons (BPD, HBPD, Guardian) are all ENERGY. This makes them inferior on Soft Flux but they can remain somewhat ubiquitous.
The Ion Beam remains ENERGY, but it's an inferior Flux-trader.
Mining Laser is a long-duration (0.3s) burst-beam with a 1-second cooldown; it does great damage per-pulse but cannot engage swarms. It does about 100 damage per pulse, which will not allow it to stop Harpoons by itself, which seems about right. I keep mentioning this weapon largely because the Vanilla version is just totally not worth mounting at all; it's simply too weak to stop anything and is thematically too much like the PDL; this gives it a different job, but doesn't obsolete the PDL (especially if range scalar is considered).
After trying this out in testing, I feel like this all works, thematically. The PD lasers suddenly have a job that is sensible; they can engage missiles at full efficiency and aren't trash vs. fighters, and while they're certainly not great assault weapons, they have a niche role to play where they're reasonably useful. The Tac Laser benefits from the change and the Pulse Beams stay neutral, which is probably where they should stay; they can do a little bit of everything and kill missiles pretty well, but aren't great for anything other than that job and occasionally being useful against fighter swarms.