Reading through the recent and upcoming weapon changes, I'm wondering is some of the weapon types are of suboptimal utility. It seems that missiles are the definitive long range weapons while lasers with their point defense and strike capabilities are the other main choice. The other weapons rarely show up in fiction and I rarely consider them since they are all lacking in one way or another, mostly range. Kurt did have meson guns in his last fiction, but I believe that was mainly due to a misunderstanding of how missile armor worked.
Is anyone using meson guns, rail guns, plasma carronades?
Are these weapons viable?
As noted above, I have discovered the potential of meson cannons. While this discovery was made because of my misunderstanding of the armor rules, it does not change the fact that meson cannons can be very useful in certain situations. In the Twin Moons campaign, PDC's equipped with meson turrets did very well against incoming missile salvoes, and PDC's have the advantage of being built by planetary construction factories, not shipyards. I am playing around with Fast Attack Craft armed with meson cannon, which would be a real headache if used against heavily armored/shielded ships.
I have used torpedoes in the past, with mixed success. Had the Colonists in the Twin Moons campaign managed to survive the last war, the next phase for both sides would have involved both building offensive orbital bases armed with torpedoes, to allow them to destroy the other side's orbital defense bases when the two moons were at their closest approach.
I have used plasma carronades as well. They do well in certain situations, if you can guarantee a close range battle.
I haven't used rail guns at all, although I have been meaning to. They just didn't seem as useful as lasers, given the fact that you couldn't put them in turrets.
Kurt