It's worth noting that DPS doesnt really change based on range, since you mention that.... I dont know where you're getting that from, unless it's from the screwball estimates that the game uses for the spread weapons. In all honesty, the exact DPS readouts can be ignored. I never really looked at them, and I play exclusively on Misery difficulty and never lose. They're just not very important and they can also be very wonky.
All you need to know is what type of weapons are effective on what. For example, the energy gun thing, it works on shields. You fire this if it's a flagship that still has shields; dont bother firing other things at shields. It works on turrets too, and bases if I recall correctly. And when you see the shields pop, you switch to whatever it is that smashes flagship hulls nicely (I forget the name) And there's a different type of gun that fires more traditional bullets, I forget the name of it, and it is to be used on smaller things that arent flagships. It's pointless to use it on anything else usually. Heck, you honestly dont need to be checking the weakness type of each ship either. If it has a shield (or if it's a base or turret): Energy thing works. If it HAD a shield but now does not, a different sort of gun works on it. If it's not a flagship, Hydral Golem, base, turret or an Obscura ship, it's a "small" ship (the vast majority of things you encounter are these), and the machine-gun thing or whatever it is works on them. And so on.
Really, the only times you NEED to be focusing on detail that heavily in the combat in this game is if you're playing on the very highest difficulties, at which point you'll need to pay attention to way more than just that (at least, in major fights anyway). But when not playing on those... pick a weapon, fire it, and if it's not working well, switch and fire a different one till something explodes, and dont really worry about it beyond that. And of course use your abilities to speed things up. The battles are designed to be played at a fast pace, with you only taking a very short time to decide what you do in the next 2 seconds. Keep moving, keep dodging, manage your power levels, and shoot at space jerks, that's all you need to really think about. Well, and proper ability use.
