Sure...

Me neither. There have never been major practical (gameplay and tactics-related) differences between EWs and guns.

*There was once...

In Fallout, the energy weapons (and some conventional heavy weapons) were generally found in lethal locations (or highly expensive), and as such, were generally a mid to end-game item; though a few could be discovered early. If the PC focused on energy weapons, they became skilled in something they likely didn't have for a good long time into the game; but... those that did, could use them as soon as acquired; where as other PCs that focused on weapons readily at hand found something new, and these rare but powerful weapons were unfamiliar to them.

Does the square part of the energy rifle butt bother anyone else? Idk I just cant stand that design...

Still not much of a functional difference imo. The category should offer more than just obscure dissimilarities.

FONV introduced a difference: high-power, but high-maintenance. Unfortunately, IMO, they didn't give enough power and required too much maintenance. I laid out exactly why the Plasma Rifle in FONV, a futuristic energy weapon, was soundly outclassed by the Cowboy Repeater, which is a design based on something from the 19th century. I believe that deconstruction I made (which is sadly lost to either forum post purges or the busted forum search or both) was what prompted Sawyer and the design crew to give the plasma rifle a buff (which IMO was still not enough).

A more evenly balanced counterpart set would be the Laser Rifle versus the Service Rifle. They have comparable damage, and are both Skill Tier 25 rifles. The laser rifle has the edge in precision and crit damage, and the service rifle has the edge in durability and ammo versatility. It has a bit of a converse compared to the plasma rifle/cowboy repeater comparison, where the laser rifle is what has viability beyond its skill tier range, while the service rifle's imprecision and less universal ammo (MFCs can be put in a much higher percentage of E-weap guns) creep up on it.

I think this should be the attribute balance between Guns and Energy Weapons in general: Power and Maintenance. Energy weapons (specifically lasers like the AEP7 and AER9) were just on the cusp of becoming service issue weapons in the US armed forces when World War III happened (which is probably why Obsidian made the AER9 feel like an "energy service rifle"), and were not as established a technology as ballistic small arms. It's kinda like Solid State Drive versus Spinning Platter Drive.

I'm actually torn on this. I only ever really used guns before because I didn't care much for energy weapons, but I have a feeling the setting and the improved weapons system is going to make energy weapons more appealing. At first I'll do guns, probably, and then on my 2nd playthrough I'll give energy weapons a go if they seem cool during my first playthrough.

Just give me lever-actions and revolvers and watch me go to town.

I.prefer guns

Laser is really nice to

I really like guns, but I always loved the laser weaponry in FO3 and Nv.

I think I'm actually going to specialise in Energy Weapons for my first playthrough of FO4. Mainly because the modding system makes look like I'll be able to make laser weapons more diverse.

Which honestly was a annoying and playstile limiting, a area Obsidian would improve many years later with NV

Now there are options for energy weapons... ENERGY WEAPONS

The Flash Master from way down south is bout to thos motha frackin raiders to ashes.

That was surely intentional; I can't imagine it wasn't.

[And I totally agree with it.]

Intentional annoying is still annoying and overall a bad decision on Black Isle part

I dont use e. weapons in fallout 1 or 2.

Sniper rifle owned everything in 1 and who needs energy weapons in 2 if you have a option to use a gauss pistol?

One thing I hope Fallout 4 will do about Energy Weapons, is have a larger base selection of them, for me to choose from. In New Vegas, once some DLC came out that included more Energy Weapons, I used them a lot more. So if F4 does that, I'll be using them a lot more often, like I did in NV.

It looks like with the new crafting system there will be a very large variety of energy weapons to choose from

I prefer energy weapons but I find myself using guns more because they have more variety. Hopefully fallout 4 changes that.

Like I said, modifying one of the base guns, is a cheap way out. What I want to know is, can we get that plasma sniper rifle, or laser shotgun, as a base weapon? Or is it strictly attained through modifying a laser/plasma weapon? If it's the former, I'd be happy, and shows Beth made more of an effort to include a more abundant selection of energy weapons. If it's the latter, then it goes to what I'm saying about modifying be a cheap way out of actually creating some new guns.

And I would say that same sentiment goes with guns as well. Do we have just five or six base weapons, and modify them, or do these modifications we can do ourselves, also happen in the rest of the world, where we can buy them from a weapon's vendor.

British EM-2 rifle. I made an entire topic on this.

This is my stance as well. People tend to overlook this issue, it has been something that has annoyed me since fallout 3. They cannot seem to get the issue right the issue is even present in Skyrim, it's largely fixed due to a patch yes but static bodies like the skeletons at the ritual stone or random encounters from a radiant ambush like a foresworn attack will remain.

I hint ash and or goo piles should be removed from the game since they are so tedious.

I will probably mainly use guns for most of my characters, I will however make a few energy weapon users go see if this annoying bug is fixed in fallout 4.

Both.

I remember reading a post where someone spotted a modded gun in a raiders hands during the xbox demo, so it sems guns can spawn with mods in the world.

Hoping for a high caliber revolver! Ranger Sequoia!