THOTHMW4, on 28 May 2012 - 01:44 AM, said:
Another point I'd like to mention is reality within the game itself. We are talking about MECHS! A Mech is a futuristic entity that's taken hundreds or thousands of years to evolve into what they are to be in the game, not today's fossil concept that although we are piloting machines, we have not conquered something so simple as the ability to control heat to the point of non-existence and ammo? Let's face it... metal ballistic projectiles (bullets) should be a relic in the age of the mech. We can build a 100ton, 100ft high walking, war machine with jumpjet abilities.., armed with bullets? Come on. That's just not realistic. Energy weapons and missile technologies are mech era weaponry, and as far as I'm concerned, bullets should be left out of the game... for the sake of realism.
There is a difference between a "bullet" and a "shell." The AC/20 shell is not something you would stick in a machine gun (which, i believe from a lore standpoint, were more for anti-infantry than mech to mech). It packs a mean punch at high speeds. Never under-estimate the power of a big chunk of metal flying at high-speed. Also, it generates less heat than a laser, which means you have more options and can extend your role in an engagement by using ballistic weapons when heat is running high (not to say it generates NO heat, of course).
As far as realism...you do realize that lasers, as described in just about any big sci-fi franchise, wouldn't look like they do in the series as they do in real life, right? It's FAR more realistic, the way I see it, that ballistic tech will continue to grow, maybe along side a laser weapon system, but ballistics wouldn't phase out.
And to your point about becoming so heat-efficient in the future that heat-management would be a thing of the past: The way I see it, the more powerful an energy weapon, the high heat is created, and keeping up with that is not so easy as saying "well, heat sinks SHOULD be more efficient/we should be able to put MORE on." And at one time, I believe during the Star League era, the IS had double heat sinks which where much better at heat dissipation, but became LosTech, thanks to the Succession Wars. And when the clans showed up with their double heat sinks, they no doubt had a much easier time managing heat (not to say they could ignore it). So you see, sometimes it has to do with the lore of the game, not the will of the player.