Outlander78, what an amazing coincidence! I’ve been working on precisely the same addition to the frigate weapon arsenal. My module’s data are at the bottom of this post. Let’s compare and contrast.
Hmmm…my frigate sniping laser’s turret weight is signifigantly heavier. I wanted the presence of this bad boy to really be felt when trying to throttle-up the engines. Perhaps I’ll slim it down a bit?
Tracking speed of mine is less; I didn’t want it to be too close to an “auto-hit” sort of weapon.
Yours makes more efficient use of energy. Mine is a real gas-guzzler. I’ll justify my far higher power requirements shortly.
I’m surprised that yours such a very long reload period. For the performance that you gave it, I think you could cut several hundred ticks off of the rearm clock and still have a pretty fair weapon. How do you feel about that?
Same goes for cost. I think yours is too pricey for the amount of value that it brings to its owner. I do understand that you’re likely trying to avoid imbalance issues, but in this case I think you’re hurting yourself unneccesarily.
Major differences in damage output. Yours is much lighter than mine. My reasoning was that the sniper wasn’t an auxiliary or second-tier weapon, but a main heavy weapon with damage to match. I tied that to the higher price, as well. Yours at least has the advantage in that you can probably carry four of them aboard a frigate with the same weight allowance that three of mine would take up. I console myself by knowing that my frigate sniper will inflict signifigant damage even earlier in the battle before enemy cruisers can bring their own heavy weapons to bear. I’ll be the first to say that damage output is truly a ‘balancing act’ to achieve, and is not so easy to do well as many might think. Much comes down to the design philosophy of the maker, as well as its intended role in a fleet formation.
Another major difference when it comes to maximum range. Yours has an impressive and very useful max range. Some might say that mine goes beyond into the outer suburbs of Crazytown. 
I’ll accept that. My entire rationale was to strike at a distance that left retaliation impossible unless frigate torpedoes or cruiser missiles were in the enemy’s arsenal. I especially like the way that your optimum range is the same as that of cruiser plasma launchers! 
That suggests some interesting usage in a combined-arms fleet formation.
An even bigger difference with minimum range. Your sniper now appears to function as a frigate laser with a max range extension, and minimum range on par with other beam weapons. I intended mine to be fundamentally different. It’s totally unusable at close engagement ranges, and even at the inner boundary of medium range. I think it’s excellent at hitting accurately even far beyond cruiser beam ranges. One pays a lot for the privilege, though, in power as well as weight…and in having a gun system that prevents use at “normal” engagement ranges. I really like that part, even though it makes mine a lot tougher to use. Yours has signifigantly greater tactical flexibility; mine is more specialized and hard-to-use outside that role.
All that being said, my frigate sniper is totally superior only because it’s, errr…LOUDER. 
Seriously, cool weapon. Thank you for sharing it with the Mod Forum!
[config]
armour_penetration = 20
beam_duration = 800
beamwidth = 8.0
blasttexture = "beam_red_atlas.dds"
category = "WEAPONS"
classname = "SIM_BeamWeaponModule"
color = 255,16,16
cost = 47
crew_required = 8
damage = 23
description = "This gun makes any frigate into a deadly and efficient shooter even from well behind the battle line. Excels at long-range fire support. Note its long *minimum* range."
fire_interval = 2400
grain = "beam_yellow_atlas.dds"
guiname = "Frigate Sniping Laser"
has_grain = 1
hitpoints = 28
icon = turret
lockable = 0
max_range = 1260
min_range = 530
name = "frigate_sniping laser"
optimum_range = 980
powerconsumed = 15
shield_penetration = 35
size = "FRIGATE"
slot_type = TURRET
sound = "data/sounds/frigate_beamlaser2_1000.ogg"
soundvolume = 1.33
texture = "beam_yellow_atlas.dds"
tracking_speed = 2.7
turret_sprite = "turret_las_v4"
turretsize = 9.0
unlockcost = 0
weight = 37
[dataitems]
0 = cost,DECIMAL
1 = weight,DECIMAL
2 = hitpoints,DECIMAL
3 = powerconsumed,DECIMAL
4 = max_range,DECIMAL
5 = damage,DECIMAL
6 = fire_interval,INTEGER
7 = tracking_speed,DECIMAL
8 = shield_penetration,DECIMAL
9 = armour_penetration,DECIMAL
10 = crew_required,INTEGER
11 = optimum_range,DECIMAL
12 = min_range,DECIMAL