I personally find the Hyperion quite deadly as it is, especially in missions like The Plunder. If the player decides to journey out ahead over Medium, they're in for a rather rude surprise. STerPulse's are not to be toyed with. Also, playing around in a mission that I'm BADLY trying to make, I found an unchecked Hyperion took down a Sanctus with surprisingly little effort, to the point I had to rearrange the thing several times, and lower AI. I'm still trying to balance it properly.
I do think torpedo would be a cool, and I do like the broadside idea. The Aeoulus is only better in the anti-fighter role because it packs two fewer Terran Turret type blobs to add more flak. If the Hyperion only swapped out 2 Terran Turret 2s for STerPulses or something, it would
probably be just as good.
There's also the perception that flak is better, just because it fills the players screen with bright exploding light. The pulse cannons are deadly, but not as visually noisy.
With little tweaks to Hyperion's armament it could serve in multiple roles, essentially replacing all previous Tev cruisers. They have the platform, why aren't they using it to its full potential? Hyperion is severely underestimated little bugger.
Isn't it because they're considered just plain too fragile?
IIRC you designed most of the weapons, didn't you Fury? Good a time as any to say that without exception they're pretty awesome.