For weapon design, I wanted to build in balance, but not make it like Mario Kart with weapons that disable controls which I think is annoying (like the squid ink).

So this means each weapon has a weakness or a counter weapon- for example the autocannon / vulcan would be weak in attack, but good in defence against missiles, the plasma lance is the ultimate in attack, but it is a very close range weapon that has fuel cells that explode if shot. The laser is like a sniper rifle (long range and powerful) but is heavy (due to batteries).

Each weapon would have a destructive power rating, a mass (weight) rating, and would have a safety rating- as with the plasma lance example, when shot it will explode unless jettisoned.

Also, certain ships would be able to carry certain weapons: smaller, more agile ships would be too small too carry big weapons and so on.