I absolutely agree that the speed either needs to be buffed or the damage ought to be increased, or some other less obvious changes be made.



The cannon buff was great, but I tend to use a PA alongside a gimballed cannon once target shields are down, aiming with the PA and trying to steady the ship to get a decent gimballed shot from the cannon at the same time. Before, the PA shot travelled quicker than the cannon, and you had to aim at the lead indicator closer to the target ship. The change meant relearning to aim at the further one, but that's neither here nor there. Because besides the cannon buff, the other change was a correction of the PA which had accidentally been given all kinetic damage before. I hadn't realised why it was so effective against hull until I found that out.



So the cannon buff both made the cannon easier to hit with than a PA, but also reduced the effectiveness of the PA a little (if you happened to use it against hulls once the shields were down), though it does better against shields now with its correct mixed thermal/kinetic damage. The cannon also no longer loses damage over range.



The problem is that the cannon is more effective against hull and also one of the best weapons for penetrating and damaging internal modules... and now the PA is looking a little anaemic against the cannon. It essentially fires like a cannon, but the shot is slower, the damage is not so optimised against one thing (shields or hull), it uses huge amounts of weapon capacitor compared to the almost non-existent usage of the cannon, generates large amounts of heat compared to the cannon, has a lower rate of fire and takes longer to reload. Oh and also has much more demanding power requirements for fitting. And cannot be gimballed or turreted like the cannon. And is also much more expensive (meh, might as well mention it).



Against that it does more damage per shot, and is more effective against shields because of the thermal component... which is nice because if the lasers aren't bringing the shields down fast enough, and I see an SCB triggered, it's great to be able to alpha a decent amount of thermal damage to try to collapse them before the SCB repairs enough. But having said that, that's still a lot of downsides for not too many upsides.



I'm not sure shot speed necessarily needs to be buffed, but given that the PA is now harder to hit with than a cannon (probably harder to hit with than any weapon, though I'm happy to be corrected on that), there ought to be something.



I also love the PA. You're essentially shooting small suns at enemy ships. It ought to be a great weapon, and it's even better that it's challenging to use. So I'm not sure if I'd go with upped shot speed or damage, but maybe something less defined.



It isn't especially good at penetration... but if a PA shot penetrates an internal module, it really ought to nearly reduce it to slag. So I'd suggest PA's have certain special effects by default.



First, how about if they do colossal damage if they penetrate to a module? Each weapon already has a stat for module damage - the PA could be especially effective against internals, leaving the cannon to reign supreme at flat damage to hull with its kinetic damage and even still be better at penetration... while missiles remain the best way of knocking out external modules. So you still need to wear down the hull a bit to be likely to get a penetrating hit with a PA, so internals don't get sniped out immediately.



Or secondly, perhaps the PA could have a good chance of inflicting a malfunction on a module it penetrates to, representing the havoc it plays with them if it gets through armour?



This would give the PA a specific role as the weapon that is hardest to hit accurately with, but if you do... it does very effective damage to internals. The high skill ceiling internal module killer.



In the absence of that though - yes, I'd say it needs a little adjustment. I'd struggle to pick a number, but it'd be nice if it isn't the same as cannons, since I like that you have to pay attention to your different lead indicators and know which one is for which weapon. Or maybe just up the damage some? I like the challenge of hitting with it currently.



Wow, my actual answer to your specific question was super-vague.



I feel like it ought to have its damage upgraded a little if nothing else.