MarineErrant, on 30 April 2016 - 08:10 AM, said:
I could see that and initially as one of those forum warriors -- back then who kept petitioning this amazing developer back in 2012, which was like a 'god' to me because unlike any other F2P developer I have ever seen or any developer for that matter, they seemed to listen to and actually implement suggestions from the community -- I had suggested something like a 6 to 8 second coodlwon akin to Mechwarrior Living Legends.
But as for Battletech. First recall that Battletech as a tabletop game is a summary.
Now in simplified (basic) Battletech, yes. It's easy to believe it is always charged as the danger is always there. The 60 meter minimum accurate range (which leads to a penalty to the pilot's gunnery skill that must be overcome by chance of dice) is supposed to be due to a combination of a long barrel to line up (or its weight) and whether or not the weapon is able to fire "in time." to make the hit, supposedly due to the charge up.
Advanced rules: Gauss Rifle gets a toggle. Powered / unpowered or "Charged" and "not charged." "Primed" and "dormant." It can only explode while charged. It can be left 'charged' or primed as long as you want but constantly carries the risk of exploding. Dormant, you're unable to use it within that 10 second timeslice or turn. You did not have to charge for every shot.
Basically, you could interpret this as it takes between 4 and 10 seconds to charge the Gauss Rifle. Since MWO runs at 3x the firing speed, that's roughly 1.34 to 3.34 seconds to charge the Gauss Rifle... but so long as its charged you can fire it as fast as it can reload... taking note that if the Gauss Rifle has as much health as it has slots (7 for IS, 6 for Clan in order to completely destroy it), it would only take 1 HP of damage to cause it to explode and this could be done through armor very easily.. (MWO's Gauss Rifle has 5 health before it explodes). If uncharged, that 1 HP of damage would simply disable it.
Given how MWO is, I think this is probably the most "Battletech" solution PGI has come up with and is balanced with the softer risk of explosion. The way MWO does ammo explosions and even the way BT does ammo explosions... Gauss Rifle is safer than even carrying a ton of machine gun ammo if not for the slot issue making GRs easier to hit and all ammo having 10 health (instead of 1).
Of course if Gauss Rifles were among the front loaded weapon types of all of Battletech in MWO (among Missiles and PPCs)... instead of just another one in a list of over a dozen in MWO, then it'd totally be worth either style of charge up.