How many weapon groups does a player really need? I make ample use of 3:
- Manual fire (primary)
- Hold fire (missiles)
- Everything else on auto fire.
Is there any particular benefit to having more?
Take Onslaught (7+ groups):
- 1 & 2 for separate TPCs (in same group they'll miss a lot against anything smaller than a capital under AI control, though it may be more convenient to keep single group for player)
- 3 for missiles (typically Annihilators)
- 4 for frontal Kinetics (if Needlers, the must be alternating as well, to be able to fire when low on flux. May need 2 groups if it's Gauss + something else, due to different range)
- 5 for frontal HE guns (HE and Kinetics separation, also likely different range, needed to manage them properly both for player and AI)
- 6 for rear-facing anti-frigate non-pd guns (if any).
- 7 for PD (it needs to be separate from everything else for proper flux management, both for player and AI). I'd add extra group for Devastators, if any, since they are too flux-expensive and may potentially lead to AI disabling whole PD group.
Aside from PD you should avoid different range weapons in same group. If AI chooses to manually fire it, shorter range weapon will waste flux at long range. AI can't figure out that some groups simply can't be manually fired efficiently.
Similar problem with non-PD guns with non-overlapping arcs, if AI decides to manually control them (which can't be prevented) one side is wasted.