TBH I usually try to use the types of weapons they did in the canon shows and movies.

I typically play ones that sound right in canon as well but balance the guns and torpedo bonuses out. I haven't had any issue fighting using any of the weapon types though. You can always just use the phasers if you want and not have any negative bonuses. Phasers and Disruptors have the most gun types if you want variety there.

You're right that the differences between many of the common "starting" types are pretty mild - they are a bit better or worse at certain things but generally this means a lot of flavour but actually a pretty level playing field.

You can use the Science Institution to turn off any weapon types that you have learned about but are not interested in researching so they just never show up as techs - this way they won't clutter your tech deck and you can always turn them back on later if you change your mind. Because each type is it's own set of technologies it is disadvantageous to spread yourself thinly across many weapon types... I would suggest picking a couple to ensure you don't fall behind.

Some of the less common, more exotic types do offer larger trade-offs in terms of shield, armour and hull damage properties (e.g. Cutting Beams, Varon and Anti-graviton weapons)! You might want to focus on certain weapons to fight some specific foes, like the Borg for example, who mostly have armour and hull.

The 'temporal' weapon types also have a unique feature in that they receive large damage boosts from the Destiny tradition tree, so if you are one of the 'Masters of Time' empires (e.g. Krenim, Na'kuhl) you can focus deep on those weapon types.

If in doubt I recommend just picking the weapon type that matches the show / your own narrative and rolling with it!

Originally posted by Scrambles:

You can use the Science Institution to turn off any weapon types that you have learned about but are not interested in researching so they just never show up as techs - this way they won't clutter your tech deck and you can always turn them back on later if you change your mind. Because each type is it's own set of technologies it is disadvantageous to spread yourself thinly across many weapon types... I would suggest picking a couple to ensure you don't fall behind.

Thanks for the reply!

I figured out the mechanic for research focus, and that compounded my issue cause 1: I wasn't sure which technology was the one to focus on and 2: Not all the techs were showing up it seemed. As the Borg, the Cutting Beam wasn't explicitly linked to any of the techs, so I couldn't just focus that.

Also on a similar subject, why are point defense weapons saddled with even more extreme debuffs rather than just lower stats?

I think the point defense have more debuffs to counter their short range accuracy and tracking. They are intended to deal with small,fast, lightly armored and shielded targets. Basically missiles, torpedoes and fighters. Not penetrate the shields and armor of a big ship.