>ARES Universe
That's so awesome I think I'm going to make canon for this
Lasweapons tend to be the most reliable. They take the form of infrared beams that release a lot of heat on contact, melting through alloys easily. Issue is, their energy is easily absorbed by shields. Particle weapons, like the Wave guns on the mercury and danube, are immensely powerful. Something something ionized particles something something, particle beams require vast amounts of energy to fire, but deliver incredible amounts of damage. R&D is currently developing miniaturized particle weapons, dubbed Beam cannons. Railguns are pretty much the current go-to weapon on all ships. Extreme kinetics can damage both shields and armor at the same time, and are relatively easy to carry ammunition for. Missiles are really a mixed bag, it depends on what you load them with but if you use them wisely they're incredibly useful. Most ARES ships maintain point defense missile batteries but the Ares flagship maintains 12 VLS nuclear missile tubes.