Hi,
we have now decided to use the "rule-book" rules and add a house rule to make e.g. 1/3/1 or 1/2/3 weapons attractive.
A race may choose to get a weapon-tech-level advantage of "+1", but commits itself to have their PEN never lower as the ROF
(ROF>=PEN)
A race may choose to get a weapon-tech-level advantage of "+2", but commits itself to have their PEN always higher as the ROF and their DMG never lower as the PEN
(ROF>PEN>=DMG)
Since we are playing a campaign style of game, this rule works fine for us and the higher tech level pulls against the SU advantage of high ROF weapons - and makes other combinations attractive. :-D
This idea came up when Dan was thinking about "other ways to give high ROF ships a penalty" - thanks for that!