Does anything other than torpedoes make sense?

[LoBlo]

Everything is bigger and has poor bombardment potential.

Anyone have weapon loadouts that surpass torps in all around around effectiveness?

[Nightskies]

Yes. Torpedoes have three weaknesses. First, their large penalty against shields is a massive weakness. Shields are the best defense overall, and the AI effectively utilizes this. Two, torpedoes can be targeted by PD and interceptors. Again, the AI utilize these. Least of all, they're terrible at targeting fighters. Then their range is deceptive due to their relatively poor damage falloff. This is compounded by how torpedoes can fire early from rear and side weapon slots. The first volley from such slots often can't reach the target, nearly negating their already deceptive range advantage.

Railguns are excellent in the early tiers, and can be relied on until solidly into mid-game. Higher tier defenses are their only real weakness, making them a solid general purpose weapon.

Then Impact (M+S) blasters take over as the generic weapon of choice in the mid game, their only limitation being short range. They lose some firepower to railguns, but aren't much mitigated by armor and don't split damage between shields and armor. These remain useful as inexpensive solutions for short range firepower in the endgame.

And in the end, Titan Blasters dominate over everything. One can hardly afford to make it the primary weapon of choice due to how much Kaasian it needs - unless economically dominating (in which case any weapon will work). Incidentally, late game torpedoes need Kaasian too. Titan Blaster's firepower just can't be overlooked and is the clear superior to Quantum and Boskaran torpedoes.

The short range of these weapons can be handled with proper tactics and sufficient ship speed. However, it should be noted that the best weapons suite is going to be mixed armaments. Except...

If you really want the best singular all round weapon, its the Zenox Star Beam. It doesn't have the potential firepower of blasters, which makes it inferior in 1-on-1, but it has instantaneous damage, good range, good accuracy, isn't countered by defense (the AI doesn't make much use of the point deflectors, which is effective against everything anyway), and can handle fighters. And it has the same advantage Railguns has with low tech investment needs, but remains a solid weapon until the endgame where it still serves as affordable mid-range firepower.

[Jorgen_CAB]

I find that missiles and fighters is a very good combination. If you have the research then fighters with blasters and bombers with torpedoes... but missile bombers and blaster fighters works too. The missiles have great range and become better the larger a combat is, being able to focus fire their missiles on single targets much easier.

Missiles also "protect" fighters from enemy ships point defences.

Have not played that much with end game technology yet as I mostly play on very slow tech progression and tend to restart games way before the end game technologies kick in.

[currierm]

And in the end, Titan Blasters dominate over everything. One can hardly afford to make it the primary weapon of choice due to how much Kaasian it needs - unless economically dominating (in which case any weapon will work). Incidentally, late game torpedoes need Kaasian too. Titan Blaster's firepower just can't be overlooked and is the clear superior to Quantum and Boskaran torpedoes.

I agree with Nightskies. Titan blasters are extremely effective. Their DPS is the best in the game by a wide margin. Factor in size, and it is even better.
Medium Titan Blaster (first research tier): DPS 22.4, size 20.
Small Hive Missile (of equivalent tier, 2nd tier of the weapon): DPS 3.8, size 19
Small Firestorm Torp (tier greater than Titan blaster): DPS 7.3, size 17

Titan blasters use more energy a second, but with the size savings you can load up on engines and reactors. Short version: Titan blasters are boss. I still go with mixed fleets/weapons, but by the late mid-game Titan blasters and fighters are my dominant damage dealers. The second and third tier Impact Assault Blasters are also excellent.