In MWO, machine guns do .8 DPS, while AC/2's do 2.78, and are affected by ballistic ROF quirks, and have a cooldown module. Machine guns have 160 damage per ton of ammo, while AC/2's get 150.
Now, I understand that, in TT, we don't have as many hardpoints as we do in MWO. For instance, the SDR-5K has only 2 B mounts in TT, versus 4 in MWO. This prevents machine guns from being boated as effectively in TT as they can be in MWO. But still, there's a huge disparity in the way that machine guns are handled in this game.
The reason that I find machine gun usefulness as such an important point is that they're the only ballistic weapon that can reasonably be thrown onto a light. At present, if it's not a Huginn or a Firestarter, lights just don't bring the utility and viability of any other weight class. A buff to the usefulness of the ballistic mounts on the lights would help pull them out of the mud a bit.
Due to hardpoint inflation, I'm not going to suggest 2 DPS machine guns for MWO (imagine the rampaging BJ-A's... delicious, but probably not balanced).
Instead, could we at least see a bump up to 1 DPS? That way, Machine Guns will be in a viable position balance-wise compared to small lasers; small lasers weigh the same, and have the same DPS, but would trade ammo dependence and face time for heat generation.
Edited by Eyepop, 27 May 2015 - 02:50 PM.