Heh. Some pretty good advice. Sounds about how I handled things, in some parts (and in the others, I'll make sure to pay attention).
I've basically made my current ship (Patriot) armed with a pair of Adv. Starbeams on the forward mounts for their efficiency, with a Scorpion (salvaged off a Xenos, of course) and an Adv. Stunpulse on the two further-back forward mounts to tear through shielding like it was tissue paper. Often enough, there's a field of extra batts and bots left behind for me to collect. Before this mod, I had absolutely no good reason to use the Shieldbuster weapons. Now, I very much do. They have a definite need, now.
As for that fighter design... well, I found where I uploaded the pics.