Joseph Mallan, on 03 December 2013 - 08:32 AM, said:
One Medium laser (10 damage in 10 seconds) is not the same as one Large laser(18 damage in 10 seconds) That is using beam duration + cool down per 10 seconds. But over 10 seconds 4 outta 5 ACs deliver the same level damage. that is just dumb to me.
I'm not saying they should all be exactly the same, and you are leaving out heat, weight and crit space in your comparisons.
One medium laser takes one ton and one crit. Name an AC that is equivalent to that. There are none. The smallest autocannon is an AC2, which is 6 tons one crit, but does 2 points of damage for almost no heat and has a range of 2160 meters. No energy weapon even reaches out to that distance, let alone for no heat.
An M16 has a shorter range, but higher rate of fire, compared to a .50 cal (I assume you mean a Barrett light 50 or some similar sniper rifle to state that range). Both fire bullets, though, and you trade off on weight and size, just like you do with autocannons in MWO.
What I am suggesting is to have an AC20 do 20 points of damage over a 1-2 second burst, then take the rest of the cooldown time to reload - that is a pretty formidable spray of rounds still. An AC10 would then do 10 damage over 1-2 seconds, then take the rest of the cooldown time to reload. AC5s do 5 damage over 1-2 seconds, then have the rest of the cooldown to reload. AC2s, with their sub 1 second cooldown, would just fire like a long range MG - a constant spray of bullets - but would otherwise function the same as they currently do.