I had a few minutes to try out the Vasari Kortul capital and I took it to a neutral planet with a few light and siege frigates. The friage I had targeted took damage but the side pulse beams would appear to hit other frigates and do no damage.
Are the beams not doing any damage, are they doing damage to my target and just appearing to hit other ships for show, or does a single beam not have enough punch to scratch a neutral frigate?