Ok ok I messed up a bit my arguments. But your response was very interesting.
For starter, on the old ships there were no shield at all. It got installed and bluprinted much later, for 1000 possible reasonable reasons.
The actual armor killer is a combination of kinetic and he, like the new tank shells, or the bunkerkiller bombs. Which could be our HE. But the point is not to blast the armor... But to bypass it! Oh well lets suppose it is a mix which explode mid perforation, cause we want to expose the hull!! Ok!
Surely only kinetic would just punch a hole in the structure or be deflected, it is actually right. No real damage would be done... But the same goes for the hull. I understand a "100%" value had to stay there, lets say it is ok this time... cause there could be good reasons for kinetics to do damage if fired into the bare hull.
Now what about beams? Beams should cut thru armor like butter!! Well the shield mechanic is still good: no burst no stress, it is ok! But no armor bonus?
Really, Why does energy weapons are so average against shields? Just one beam with kinetic properties, we are in the shield era, and an arbalest autocannon is better than my high intensity laser... I understand ballistic having a sweet spot with the shield weakness and stuff, but the high tech world requires some ideas fight their own kind.
Last argument: In a conventional closed space, you have a minigun, a load of C4, a bunch of frag granades, and an enhanced diamond cutter... They do nor deal the same amount of damage.
I mean I know this is a game, but when you throw in a lot of details and specifications, it easy to start reasoning about them... find interesting stuff or strange one.
In general i think the combat is well balanced, but the weapons need some general tuning and revisioning...
And please make beam weapons a damage type per se... It is really another world of play style.
Peace!