__________________
It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets. - Voltaire
I'm pretty sure they work, they just no longer skip shields like they used to.
In fact, I just tested it. Ionic Dispersers work, but they no longer skip shields, which is a bummer. All is not lost however, you can add shield skipping back to Ionic Dispersers if you want.
in addition, remember weapons that only damage to X, such as only to shields and only to engines need to DESTROY a component in ONE turn. The damage does NOT stack. So if you did 19 damage and the each engine has 20 hp you wont ever destroy one.