I tested them in combat for about 4-5 hours, and for me, they're still too slow. I tried using light guided missiles as anti-fighter weapons, but almost every time I fire, the enemies just boost away, and all I see is my money flying off into the void.

1) Are you on beta or normal version? ( Do the boost drains the shields? )
2) Are you using them from capital-ships/stations or from fighters.

In my testing, the missiles as anti-fighter are good only on stations or cap-ships, firing them from fighters is only good as support weapon ( 1 tracking launcher and the rest are normal weapons ), and in large engagements ( ~15 vs 15 ). But even then, it not a "I win" button, they just help some times, but even after 20 min of fighting, some fighter still had unused missiles.

"light guided missiles" are notoriously unreliable vs flairs and can't re-target, so enemy can just use: flair -> boost away -> repeat.

Try smart missiles.

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PS: Egosoft in X universe ( at least in X4 ) doesn't treat missiles in fighter combat as a "long range, one shot" weapon, as they are IRL.

To make them fast and deadly would require:
- Detaching them from launchers ( to free the weapon slot ).
- limiting them to like 2 or 4 per fighter.
- Teaching AI how to use them as an alpha strike weapon from ~6 km on multiple targets.

I can maybe do the firs two, but not the third.

Then again, a can just increase damage, range, speed by x3, but it will make the missile OP, both for player and AI, and would make cap-ships and stations utterly defenseless against swarm of fighter.

Which would be some what OK if:
- There were no Gates and Highways.
- Carrier fleets could jump, which would turn them in to launtch platforms, not glorified repair busses.
- AI knew how to use this new found UNLIMITED POWER.

PPS: The reason why I worry about AI and how it will use OP missiles, is because it not only dumb, but actually a zombie that incapable of thinking ahead.

I really recommend watching this video about how it works:
X4 Oversimplified: Understanding the AI ( YouTube )

I'm using the normal version and tested it with my Gladius heavy fighter, equipped with 2 tracking missiles and 2 proto gatlings. For missiles, I tried heavy and light tracking variants, but not the smart ones. Personally, I think heavy missiles should deal significant damage when they hit, even against capital ships. That said, I haven’t played long enough to get carriers with massive fleets. Maybe it’s just because I prefer staying a small mining corporation, using my fighter to disable ships for boarding. With the proto gatlings, it's much easier and faster compared to relying on the 2 tracking missiles.
I tried modifying your mod, but now the missile launcher no longer works—it can’t use missiles or shoot at all. All I did was dive into your config files and change some numbers, nothing else.

Did you change the "Tags" parameter for "ammunition", it should be the same as the one for the launcher.
Testing is better done with a custom start, 5 Syns with 100 fighters VS entire Argon Prime.

The first iteration of the mod had "Heavy Dumbfire Turret" that can shoot torpedoes, but it made cap-ships obsolete, as just 1 Syn could demolish 6 destroyers and 2 carriers before dying, and not from enemy destroyers, but from the 50 fighters that was left from the 2 dead fleets.

If more people say the missiles are still garbage, I'll buff the more.

Problem is: only like 5% players ever use missiles, and those who do will want them to be OP.
Hard to struck a "balance".

Can I modify your files directly using Visual Studio Code, or do I need to do something else first? In some games, the files need to be decrypted before editing. I'm still to dumb to modify them

1) Unpack them using XRCatTool
2) Use VSC or Notepad++
3) Profit, as the game can recognise lose files ( .pac is just basically an archive to save space )

But don't forget to delete the .pac files, or better yet:
1) Put the unpacked files in the different folder, like "MyNewMod" (in the extensions folder).
2) Change the content.xml to:
<content id="MyNewMod" name="" description="" version="10" save="false" author="">
3) Disable my mod and enable yours.

Ok Thanks

I'm not familiar enough with X4 xml to find and change what i'd like. I'm trying to find what causes your missiles to be launcher specific and change it back to universal like vanilla...and i'd keep the dumb missiles with dumb launchers of course. I'm assuming its some kind of "tag"

example: <replace sel="//missile/@tags">torpedo_heavy</replace> ?

Yes, delete all lines with the "Tag"