One issue that has come up with the advent of Guardian weapons is that they easily outclass all human AX weapons, making these quite redundant.
With this in mind, I would like to suggest the following 4 easy changes to make human AX weapons more viable as an alternative to Guardian weapons:-
1. Make the human AX weapons non experimental: Since these weapons are by and large based on human tech, and have been in use for a while, they shouldn't be experimental any more.
2. Give us gimballed AX multicannons: Since we already have guided turreted AX weapons, it makes sense to give an AX multicannon variant with damage between fixed and turreted, especially since quite a few ships require the use of gimbals (such as the T10, would become a legitimately powerful AX ship with changes 1 and 2)
3. Give us proximity fuses for flak: these would allow the use of flak as a fire and forget weapon; the downside would be that it would require a minimum distance from target to trigger the fuse.
4. Change AX missile turrets to guided AX missiles: the AX missile turrets are awkward to use and don't make much sense. Since human ships can lock onto Thargiod ships, AX seeker missiles would be a much more fun to use and sensible weapon.
The following changes would make human AX weapons a clear and more familiar alternative to the guardian weapons. While Guardian weapons would represent the exotic high skill-high reward side, human AX weapons would offer familiarity and flexibility, being capable of use in a greater variety of loadouts and a greater variety of ships (for example, the Type 10 Defender would once again become a powerful AX ship due to being able to fill out all it's hardpoints and being able to concentrate fire from it's widely spaced hardpoints).
With this in mind, I would like to suggest the following 4 easy changes to make human AX weapons more viable as an alternative to Guardian weapons:-
1. Make the human AX weapons non experimental: Since these weapons are by and large based on human tech, and have been in use for a while, they shouldn't be experimental any more.
2. Give us gimballed AX multicannons: Since we already have guided turreted AX weapons, it makes sense to give an AX multicannon variant with damage between fixed and turreted, especially since quite a few ships require the use of gimbals (such as the T10, would become a legitimately powerful AX ship with changes 1 and 2)
3. Give us proximity fuses for flak: these would allow the use of flak as a fire and forget weapon; the downside would be that it would require a minimum distance from target to trigger the fuse.
4. Change AX missile turrets to guided AX missiles: the AX missile turrets are awkward to use and don't make much sense. Since human ships can lock onto Thargiod ships, AX seeker missiles would be a much more fun to use and sensible weapon.
The following changes would make human AX weapons a clear and more familiar alternative to the guardian weapons. While Guardian weapons would represent the exotic high skill-high reward side, human AX weapons would offer familiarity and flexibility, being capable of use in a greater variety of loadouts and a greater variety of ships (for example, the Type 10 Defender would once again become a powerful AX ship due to being able to fill out all it's hardpoints and being able to concentrate fire from it's widely spaced hardpoints).
