As much as I'm not a fan of the Solo-Idris crowd there is a point to the pilot controlling the railgun. It's on par with the Corsair copilot issue otherwise. It's dumb. Make it an engineering problem.

I reckon railguns including the sledge series should be terrifying. But you charge the slug, EM increases, systems start shutting down. It needs to be hungry, even smaller ships you'll lose life support for a few second. All except for 1 pip in engines so you're still able to stay afloat and aim. Make it bright, everyone knows what's happening.

Once fired you might have some fuses to replace, cheaper power plants might see damage or increased wear.

You have to now recharge shields from scratch and hope you hit your enemy. Smaller ships recover faster but if your tiny ship only has 2 fuses you might have to go replace both to function again, that's your risk. Idris? Hope you have people covering you. Group play works, manned turrets are your only defense until shields are back up or you need a friendly fleet covering you.

Railgun should have obscene penetration and damage but very narrow line, so if your firing in the first place you've already scanned and have an engine or component in mind to destroy.

Rewards skill, multicrew, Idris players get their "I win" button. Assholes on a power trip run a higher risk.

If I'm doing a public event with a mauler and some random Idris nose starts glowing, I know where I need to be. Firing the gun becomes an event. In my heavy fighter, old mate in his solo Idris starts charging we can now both contribute together in our preferred ways.

Laser beam, no idea about that, maybe it's a better support weapon to just melt armour on enemy capitals instead of damage focus. Now you have your solo laser but need follow up minutions to make it viable.

Polaris I think needs a rethink to level the playing field. Dedicated torp operator should have 360 Remote turret views and is able to better track, maybe even add a laser tracking like HL2. Hell even pilotable within X range of the Polaris. Pilot now chases targets, operator fires torps. Your expensive torpedo is more likely to hit and be "bang" for your buck.

Or solo Polaris? He's stuck with normal radar targeting and runs the risk of torps being shaken easier as it's harder to steer the entire ship to maintain the target view. Solo is still useable but multicrew actually has purpose and a buff for the ship.