What kind of weapons do you put on your ships and why?

In DA: Psionic beam first, psionic missile if necessary, beeline to black hole eruptor.

In TA: Psionic missile first, psionic beam if necessary, beeline to nightmare torpedo.

For both: Use intermediary researched weapons as they begin to outclass current weapons on an attack per size rating; this will vary slightly with hull size and miniaturization.  Increased cost is acceptable, although unlikely given that my baselines are psionics.  Laser V and Harpoon I are acceptable early game substitutes, but I like my attack ships to actually be able to kill something, so generally I won't use particle beams/rail guns/stinger or (ew) sparrow.

I tend to ignore mass drivers in both games, with the exception of when I need a third weapon type, which generally means nano ripper off of Singularity Driver IV.  In TA, a number of races do not have nano ripper unlockable, so it's no longer an option.

At the point in time that my above objectives have been fulfilled, and sometimes before then, weapons are no longer necessary, except if I want to increase my military score, in which case I already have or am already researching nightmare torpedo/black hole eruptor, so I don't need anything else.

I rarely design military ships until I have the Black Hole Weapons.

Too much micromanagement, too many new weapons techs being researched at a time, too much money wasted, etc.

I keep the galaxy at peace with eachother until I can design ships like that.

Yeah, it's weird, I know. I don't spam races into going to war with one another, I try to keep them at peace.

It is in my opinion more challenging, especially on Suicidal.

And are you like a NOOB or something Ralphander (just a curious question, I did put a little too much emphasis on the NOOB part, I know).

But if you like to waste your money to have (in a way) a more epic game (although there is nothing epic about the space battles in this game, except in DA maybe, I wouldn't know about TA, I don't have it), I would go for Phasors (Laser tree), Nano-Ripper (Mass Driver tree), and Quantam Torpedo (Missile tree). This is of course based on DA since I don't have TA (it also applies for DL). I might update this info  based on the positions of these on the tech tree, cause I think I made a couple of mistakes in my judgement.

 Eitherway, these weapons should keep you well armed against any threat (even the Dread Lords I'd assume, also assuming that you hit them first and have enough defenses to take at least 3 of their hits before you manage to destroy them.

Like I said, I'll correct myself later.

Till then...........

That's not an apple, that's a bomb.

I'm not a score-maximizer and I very rarely have a top-3 military early in the game (I always play with 9 other civs on gigantic or immense maps). I tend to choose my primary weapon type to match any hole in the defenses of my biggest rival or rivals.

In most of the games I've played, there's almost always a popular weapon that most of the strong civs are using, and they usually develop the corresponding defense. So I pick a weapon they're not defending against and try to finish the tree fairly quickly.

Over the long haul, I'm a research generalist and use new designs and ship upgrades to keep my most experienced ships "tech-optimized," switching from beams to missiles to guns as the defenses of my opponents change.

If I were to do something like that, I'd upgrade the same ship design three times for specific weapons/techs.

And I also give out my weapons and defense techs like it was yesterdays trash.

I find that the games are more interesting that way.

I play on tiny maps usually and I never get to the end of a weapons tree. I always tried but it's just to long a research drag. I guess it,s because it,s to small a game.

I don't have a hard preference.  It depends on what the AI does more than anything.  Really, my priority is Missile Defense, because once I max that out (which is hard, but not that hard), I get Hyper Computers.  Then I've got +20 research, which helps get me whatever else I need more speedily from there.  Regardless, Aeron Missile D modules are sweet!  They even do a decent job against non-missiles.   It makes ships more upgradable, too, because I need only worry about upgrading my weapons.

     I tend to research other things early to midgame, and trade with the minors for weapons tech - usually missiles.  For defense, I usually go with missile defense.  (and the hyper recorders as mentioned).

     When the pirates show up, they usually have ships to counter mine (typically beams and point defense) , so I research defense and weapons to counter theirs.  (Guns and Shields)

      If they don't show, then I try to counter the AI opponents.  By having the infrastructure (research and production) in place, I can be more flexible.   All things being equal, the Nightmare torpedo is the best weapon in the game.

       Having the galaxy at peace does have disadvantages.  (No war profiteering, no captured techs, Jagged Knife might show up.)   There are lots of ways to play and have fun.

I usually play Twilight, Suicidal level games with tech trading allowed.  I also usually have a diplomatic focus strategically, so I nearly always end up simply trading for whatever the Korath or Drengin are using (doable do to massive diplomatic advantage through tech focus and prioritizing the diplomatic wonders).  Late game, in the rare instance I decide to score grind, everything is going to get researched.  I commonly have +50% luck, so if I've got equal weapons tech to my opponent (doable diplomatically in most cases), I win militarily.  That basically lets me ignore military tech altogether and focus on tech paths that the AI tends to be slower to research - diplomacy, advanced goverment, ethical dependent, etc.  It also means production can stay 100% industry without really falling too far behind (I love tech brokerage).  That, in turn, means more ships - how much stuff you've got can matter as much or more as how good the stuff you've got is .