wanderer, on 23 November 2012 - 10:34 AM, said:
The energy/missile weapons beg for being your short-range secondary battery- twin MPL's and a Streak rack, for example.
I'll also say the dual-Gauss -4X isn't a joke. The extra 5 tons makes a difference- I can strap a Gauss on each arm, 60 rounds, and a pair of MPLs for backup and get a brutal piece of work. I feel sorry for the guy who thought he was safe when he jumped up a hill, and I just brought the main guns up and cored the poor fella in mid-air. The wider field of fire really does make a difference vs. the Gaussapults we're used to seeing. Alternatively, pack a single large laser or twin ML's + Streak for extra reach, depending on how close you want to be for fighting or general taste.
You can also go with a triple mount rather than a quad one. Triple AC/2-AC/5's is nothing to sneeze at, and the -4X is one of the few designs that can pull it off without putting them all in one single location- and you can use the tonnage from not mounting gun #4 for energy/missile secondaries.
Holy crap though I actually tried a quad machine gun build last night. 4 machine gun + 2 medium pulse + SRM4. Early on I got into a fight with a circling Jenner. We traded blows until he retreated and I was yellow/orangish in armor. I then ran into another Cataphrat (forget which model, he had lots of lasers though) in a tunnel at short range. I just held down every button on him for continuous fire and ended up killing him. My armor was in the red but no internal damage yet.
Probably a fluke, but it was pretty hilarious.