This was pretty much my conclusion. For one, until you make it to the Vegas area you're pretty well gimped for energy weapons and ammo. Even still, with the pistol from Doc and a recharger rifle you can get very early on...it just seems like it takes eons to get anything done with them.

If they did that then the rage threads would just be about how they tagged EW and can't find a gun. It's *is* half the case though, as the really useful ones are quite rare.

They don't need to be "that" rare, just rare enough.

[edit]
Maybe the list isn't complete at the wikia but apparently these EW don't even have a single mod:
Laser Pistol
Plasma Pistol
Recharger Pistol
Pulse Pistol
Multiplas Rifle
Gauss Rifle
Tesla Cannon
Heavy Incinerator
Incinerator
Tri-Beam

I hope they add at least one mod to each of these in a DLC. <_<

For the record. This isn't so much a "rage" thread, as a "moderately discontent" thread.

As I've come to discover, energy weapons are a mixed bag. Some of the weapons are useful is some situations (pulse cannon vs robots), some are totally useless (pretty much anything with lasers).

The problem seems to be is that as a general rule, they rely too heavily on crits. If you don't have a high critical chance, you can forget about energy weapons being useful in anything but specialized circumstances. The problem with this, is that by the time most players discover this, its too late to change the direction of the character development.

What I would like to see is a moderately higher general damage and slightly less powerful crits. This would bring them more in line with regular guns in the sense that they would have a more generalized application.

Also, energy weapons historically have been an "end game" investment. You invest the points into something that doesn't come into fruition until later on. I think most people expected it to be this way in NV, and were a little surprised when they hit level 25 and still had trouble doing any significant damage with energy weapons.

I think the primary reason for lackluster performance of energy weapons is the lack of differentiation between the types of damage being done. The Damage Threshold statistic works on all types of damage and can encompass too much. Mass driver weapons damage differently than energy weapons. This is why energy weapons were pretty powerful in the original Fallouts. While typical armor could protect you well enough against most firearms... they simply weren't designed for things that did explosive, thermal, and beam damage. This is actually the primary reason Powered Armor was important as it was designed to protect against those damages. This is also why there was times that leather armor was more useful than metal armor, since leather armor provided more protection against thermal damage.

But, it's very apparent that the people who knew the intricate physics and mechanics behind the game didn't have anything to do with Fallout 3 and NV. Remember folks, we got the writers this time with NV... not the technical folks.

Ok I just ran into some Giant Rats and I am desperately trying to kill them with my plasma pistol and RCW but... it's just not working very well at all.

Why should I be able to do more damage with brass knuckles with a skill of 8 in unarmed than with my plasma pistol with a skill of 65 in energy weapons?

I think I actually really screwed myself in choosing energy weapons as a tagged skill.

Aren't some of the best weapons in the game energy based? I think EW is something that becomes more beneficial later... but perhaps not all that necessary. What with the AM Rifle.