does damage way too soon.
Missile burst does damage each time missile hits
Hitscan burst however for some reason does not follow the same pattern and damage happens in near-simultaneous or simultaneous time frame. Meaning, damage does not wait for actual shots to at least be made, damage is preempted already with the first shot. 5 shots damage are made in an instant, while weapon did not even shoot yet.
This is not a problem with single shot hitscan weapons, like say Wave cannon on Titan, or its phase cannon. Damage jumps happen near-instantly (or actually instantly, shotgun style 5 pellets with first shot) from multiple sources, instead of more accurate and appropriate waiting for each shot to at least being made. (since except for missiles, projectile does not carry the damage and is only for visuals) This can also prevent situations like a ship disappearing from getting appropriate damage, but weapons are still firing, because the visual (fake) firing sequence has to be finished.
This way if you timed the damage to when the shot is made, you would be more likely to spot which weapon actually is currently doing damage. As well as how much, so without reding the files you can get the idea how mechanics work.
Kortul heavy wave cannon has 48 pen like all the wave cannons. Its 60 damage is done in 3 shot burst, 20 per hit. Like say 108 damage of missile frigate in burst of 3.Or 36x3. Then there are medium wave weapons that do 21 damage in 5 turns, or 4,2 damage per shot.
4,2 damage per hit, against any sort of shield mitigation, like 4, should result in something like no damage. I presume 1 damage is still minimum. I know lv 10 ship gets some 1,45 damage modifier, adding on top so lets say 6 damage, times research also some 45% end in 8,7 or so.
In current version we have some shield mitigations to up to say 27. I am thus wondering, if there are some other damage/shield mechanics, or are hitscan bursts really stuffed into just one damage for the purpose of being effective versus shields. But then again, why are multiple streams of shots even made ? Corsair for example from heavy (medium) guns shoots something like 21 damage, one shot, light gun does approximately 31 in 4 shots. If they are only visuals, I think fewer projectiles but something like more cool firing animations will look better. Change some sounds so that a single-shot corsair does not sound like a machine gun.
You do have some heavy hitters to break shields, but when I used a mass of cobalts, they seemed to not have problems with starbase shields. Those light corvettes have a pretty high overall burst damage. But if the ydid damage per actual shot, mitigation would have been much more powerful it seems to me. Because my observation points to something that looks like burts are only visual except for missiles.
Why I write about this is because it looks in my opinion of course, pretty bad. Maybe you like it that way. I do not 
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You can have high penetration weapons with low damage, meaning great armor piercing, but bad performance versus shields. High damage per shot means great versus shield. But low penetration has the potential of being an antishield weapon. Im pretty sure you know that very well. If you want something generalist, you have mediocre pen with something that does damage in high enough quantity to reduce both shield and hull moderately effectively. (medium caliber autocannon for example) Doing high damage per shot with high AP with high dps is what tends to be something like a weapon that has great dimensions with similar infrastructure. Physically, high damage means low sustained rate of fire. Imagine large siege guns, how those large shells, the barrel etc worked. With missiles, (like what is called strategic deterrent) you get overall propulsion and projectile/s in one piece. Some could be multi-stage. Some are not, because their body acts as lifting device when velocity is maintained. (AA missiles) However, in space such mechanics do not quite apply. Wings do nothing in there. You turn with thrust vectoring, and even when you turn, your momentum is not necessarily at all stopped when you turned yourself, so again, thrust vector needs to say, stop rotation, then thrust in opposite direction to actually 'halt' movement. And that thrust vectoring engine doesnt necessarily have to be in the rear on the fuselage. Still, this is a game so one could say, well, whatever 
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I really would like to know what is the intention behind the instant damage behind burst shooting hitscan weaponry. As well as actual mechanics. Because missiles do 120 damage in 4 hits, each one gets mitigated by shield. Base damage say 30 minus mitigation. Or, 30+30%+6%, or something like 40,8 minus mitigation. Or I could add 15% from missile aura, assuming damage is additive to the base, (or is could be said 40,8 example x1,15 nearing 47,8 instead of 40,8+4,5=45,3) Are light ships actually meant to be antishield ?
If some weapons like Gauss are deemed too strong vs shield, you can make them shoot like Kol, instead of 2x1 damage bursts, into 2x2 since it does fire double barrels 60 damage each instead of 120. Heavy gauss would still only reach 120 base instead of 240. And Gauss defense turrets into 3x60 damage, perhaps shooting one shooting, then the other. Or as currently, all at once. At least they are recoilless 
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I was also wondering about similar damage values on Heavy autocannon the one with 60 penetration that is on Starbase, stats-wise it also has low damage per bullet. Perhaps it is really heavy, so it does not look like a medium autocannon model, like actually being something like Harcka has, which looks pretty heavy, the barrel bore is pretty thick there.
Sure most things are work in progress and I mentioned some completely different topics.
I hope that capital ships or bigger ships will get some more proper disappearance sequence, so that stuff starts falling apart and only then there goes an appropriate-sized poof where suddenly space debris appears in its stead. Meaning, when explosion happens, it should not first cause the ships to instantly disappear. If you played ME2, the start, 'This is SSV Normandy' start looks pretty cool, that was 2010, an RPG game. Or the ending sequence of ME1 where you had them fleets meet.(2007) I didnt play any newer games of that style, they seemed braindead to me. (I did ME3 multiplayer, not the campaign, I was already disgusted with sheet they tried force feeding me with, that was 2012, me2 already smelled with weird stuff to be honest, but it was still pretty cool)
Also, for some reason Ragnar Rail gun, afaik, still, when it fires, its hit effect causes green cloud to appear, like the one with Radiation bomb. Rail gun projectile also at least to me, seems rather slow. Those clouds are sometimes too thick to really see through them. And harmful radiation does not shine green. So, if you like it green, well, toning the density like that effect, to not obscure everything, is something I would consider if I were you, so that when you zoom in to a tactical battle, that you can really see what goes on.
When thinking about the hitscan in general, when you have ability to have hitscan long range weaponry, something like Gauss, Rail gun, Phase cannon, I think it is a bit unfair toward missiles that are both prone to overkill as well as being ble to be mitigated or nullified via PD.
Phase cannon for some reason has 960 penetration. I thought that it would mean instead that it would be something like SoaSE:R 'Gauss Railgun' mechanic instead, being able to pass or having a chance, like missiles, to pass through shield. I dont say nerf it or anything like it, I thought thematically Phase stuff is about going through shield with missiles at least. That ship in the last game lacked any way to engage strong targets, cap ships, starbases, titans, so there is a use or need for it.
If long range weaponry like those I mentioned would have to wait to hit to do damage, it would not be out of question to increase the projectile velocity (or not) so overkilling only depends on range and is not only a problem missiles have, Since missiles dont retarget, even though they could. So, to reduce overkill, get closer, PD is also less effective when there is less time to engage missiles.