Wow, this mod has come a long way. Playing with the vanilla balanced mod compilation (U's Corvus), your ships are no longer the cannon fodder they were before. I especially like the best ship the faction has - the Titan Class carrier with the hadron transporter. That, combined with the nucleon ram, makes for one hell of a capital ship. Moreoever, it's got enough points and slots to make it a well rounded warship with no major weaknesses.
I've equipped mine with : 1 Cain (this gun is AWESOME. the sound effect it makes, plus the extremely high shot velocity means it actually doesn't suck like most ballistic weapons)
1 Peacemaker (a tier 3 heavy mauler, basically. This covers the rear so it can shoot at smaller ships that have snuck around back)
1 nucleon ram, 5x dual flak cannons, and 2 harpoon MRMs. The dual flak cannons slot right in for 360 degree coverage against fighters and missiles.
I gave it 50 flux vents, accelerated shields, integrated targetting unit, auxillary thrusters, advanced optics, and advanced turret gyros.
It is one badass ship. It can easily beat any 2-3 ships in the vanilla game, and it has an answer for almost every situation.