Well when my mod is finally released (need the new features and plenty of time to add content so it may be a while lol) there will be missile specialized ships that can only equip missiles. But that's because I have changed missiles to be more versatile and work differently than Vanilla and the variants and weapons are much better at dealing with them en masse.
They are now sort of like a 3rd weapon option along with ballistic and energy weapons. They have their strengths and drawbacks.
I'm intrigued, mod link?
So sorry didn't see this until now!
As far as the mod goes its a WIP and doesnt have a forum post yet (unless you count an ancient, poor quality outdated one that doesn't look at all like the current one im working on deep in the mods forums back in 2013.. eheh.. sigh).
I
am planning on releasing a few teasers when I get the the mechanics nailed down a bit more and have time to record some gameplay footage. I am actually pretty excited about it. It completely changes many current combat mechanics and emphasizes a little more tactical strategy in combat rather than just player ship control.
For couple examples:
Weapons are much smaller and more numerous and have different roles and strengths. This along with smaller and numerous fighters give a different sense of scale to the ships. Almost every ship in the game has had a sprite overhaul to accommodate either a new role or more weapons. Factions have specific play styles to them based upon what tech of ships and weapon types they use and eventually will fly around with the same types of ships unless market conditions change what they can afford.
The flux mechanic no longer exists in the same way and shields are a second health pool that can be "healed" quickly (venting) very slowly (lowering shields) and modifiable by all the relevant upgrades. Almost all weapons but some very powerful energy ones and LR missiles no longer generate flux.
Ships are much much slower in combat and rely on the 0-flux speed boost to move around. So raising shields or using long range weapons (which usually generate at least some flux) will slow a ship drastically. So kiting is more difficult and nay buoys are much more important especially in nebulae. Only frigates retain the ability to dart in fire some weapons and dart out. When larger ships engage it is usually difficult to disengage. You must choose where and when to engage carefully as most of the time disengaging is not an option and you will take critical damage.
Fighters are very very fast and can (and do) dart in and out dodging capital fire to disable weapon and engine hardpoints on ships without shields raised. Most ships above a frigate (and even some designated "light carriers" that are friagtes) support fighters while carriers can support far more than usual and are armed with long range weaponry.
There is a ton more but I'll stop there. Once I have the balance I will release the revamped missions which will let players take a look at the weaponry and ships and the missions will teach the basics of combat and the new tactics that will be required.
