"Best" gun loadout in the game?
Best "One Blast" shield-destroying loadout:
2 Cerberus
2 Diamondback
2 Tizona del Cid
1 Rapier or Adv. Debilitator turret
Damage per shot:
Shield: 5634
Hull: 4795
Damage per second:
Shield:17856
Hull: 9808
This loadout does the most shield damage per blast (within reason: 6 tizonas will do 8260 shield damage per shot, but only 266 hull). This is the one you want to scare people with; it removes any shield level 6 or lower in one shot, and any shield in the game with a second blast of the pulse guns. However, the fire rate for the 4 lvl 10s is only 2 per second, and the other 3 guns don't do any hull damage, so the hull damage per second really suffers.
Best DPS (hull) with a synchronized loadout:
4 Nomad Blasters
2 Salamanca Mk II
1 Salamanca turret OR lvl 8 pulse turret
Damage per shot: (w/ Salamanca turret)
Shield: 2000
Hull: 4007
Damage per second: (w/ Salamanca turret)
Shield: 8000
Hull: 16028
This loadout is made up of the best guns that fire at 4 per second. The damage per second is second only to using 3.03 rate guns. There seems to be an issue with the Nomad guns, however. I've noticed that some hits don't seem to do full damage. Either there's a randomizer that reduces average damage, or you have to hit solidly (not just hitting the shield sphere, but the ship's hit box) for any damage at all to be done, but it's worth being aware that hitting with all guns doesn't necessarily mean full damage. Use a Salamanca turret to maximize hull damage. A pulse turret is of course for extra shield damage (bumps shield DPS to 10255, drops hull DPS to 14176)
Best hull DPS, period:
4 Nomad Cannons
2 Wyrm Type 2
1 Salamanca Turret
Damage per shot:
Shield: 2588
Hull: 5181
Damage per second:
Shield: 8078
Hull: 16173
This loadout is the best of the best. The most hull damage per second by the numbers of any loadout in the game. The downside of this is that after the first blast, the synchronization of the cannons and turret don't line up exactly for 606 shots (They line up pretty well for about 5 seconds). It's not a big deal if you fire in bursts, or if you don't mind the odd rhythms of the shots while strafing a target. Going just by DPS, there isn't much advantage with this loadout over the synchronized one, but with more damage per shot, the timing changes. You can get 2 shots (5172 shield) with this loadout before your opponent with 4 shot per sec guns can get 3 (he's done only 4000 damage), and that can make all the difference.