Northerner
I think you should implement more beam-weapons and use the buff system, so this is an idea that popped into my head:
Alright, I suppose you remember the once amazing (and unbalanced) but now abandoned mod called Archon's Plasma mod?
Well, if I remember it right there was a rotatable Ion Beam thing. I am thinking in this direction.
So I am thinking about an ion beam turret, about the size of the Firecracker cannon. It would be able to rotate about 90° and it's laser about as powerful as the ion beam.
Of course, to prevent this from becoming OP: It would be expensive, it would eat energy like crazy and due to it compressing the batteries it explodes upon death.
About the buff part, you could add something, size 1x1 or 2x2, that would buff energy weapons next to them. Perhaps to increase damage. This buff is stackable, so very powerful together with the turret mentioned earlier.
What's the catch? Those buffing devices are explosive and have a passive energy use, so crew must bring power to them all the time.
To make them worth stacking a lot, one
would have to add more reactors, making the ship even more explosive, and this mechanic less OP.
What do you think? If this goes too far from the vanilla vibes, I understand. Just tell me and I'll suggest more vanilla-like things instead.