I tend to think about such things at least to one or two realistic points

A) Maintaining an energy based weapon in the wasteland is pretty difficult. Recharging energy/microfusion cells near impossible

It stands to reason that there are less Energy weapons than projectile weapons due to cost to produce.

EDIT: With the amount of weapon modification possible, there .. should be enough types of weapons for everyone.

I hope that there are at least base types for Laser, Plasma, Pulse/EMP/tesla, Cryo, and Gauss weapons (and flamers too, depending on where they end up being categorized).

Judging by the e3 demo, I'd expect these weapons to come in different varieties like pistols, rifles, shotguns, rapid fire, "throwers" (for plasma and maybe Cryo and EMP?), sniper, etc.

Hopefully, Bethesda keeps a couple of unique varieties too. I'd love to see the return of the Plasma Caster, the Plasma Defender, the Rechargers weapons, the older Wattz laser weapons, etc.

I really like the sound of making a plasma sniper rifle and an automatic plasma rifle!

Being able to extensively modify laser rifles and plasma rifles is cool, sure, but if that means Bethesda get lazy and fail to give us a wide variety of base energy weapons I'll be pretty unhappy.

But I think a bigger issue is the death animations of energy weapons. They need to be better. I want to be able to sear off a raider's limb with my laser, or gooify parts of their body. We probably won't get that, but more realistic and satisfying death animations for enemies is crucial.

I didnt understand the idea that Energy Weapons werent well-represented since Fallout New Vegas had a mountain of different types, so many so that i had to make multiple characters to use the more interesting ones. LAER, Plasma Caster, Multiplas, Plasma Defender, Tesla Cannon, Laser RCW, Tri-Beam Laser Rifle, AER14 Prototype, Gauss Rifle, Pulse Gun, Sonic Emitter, that taser gun from Zion, Holorifle...not to mention all the regular ones that you could modify...so much variety

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll be sure to try it out sometime

I think we're on the same page. The whole point of AKA 47's is to use a real gun but call it something else. So I was saying that while we may not see a gun in game labeled "Colt Single Action Army," we may very well see a Colt Single Action Army being called "Peacemaker," or, since that was its real-life nickname, "Lawbringer."

Really hope the SAA is in the game.

Is it confirmed that those got the boot? No HP or AP? Suddenly I'm sad...

The same goes with bullets, they don't have factories that make them anymore, so yeah they should be near impossible too.

At least you can recharge energy cells and microfusion cells, hell there are some energy weapons that rely directly on solar power, like the Recharger Pistol, the same can't be said about bullet based guns

Oh my god, I absolutely agree with you, having a great modification system doesn't mean that we get less variety of energy weapons, that is a really great point.

I also agree about the death animations for energy based weapons, they need to spice it up alot, like you can goolify or turn a limb to ash, that would be great.

Unique weapons use the same base energy weapon type, like AER14 Prototype uses the base laser rifle, the only thing they change is the name and the damage output.

I was saying we need more base energy weapon types, new and varied ones that make the game interesting and spice up the energy skill, and making it more useful

I have to agree, we do need more base types for energy weapons, not just Laser/Plasma/Cryo, we need more variety for energy weapons in general, energy weapons have always felt left out and behind in terms of variety, quality and types, they need to give it it's much justice!

The Gun Runners say "Hi."

Also, I'm sure handloading bullets is a much simpler process than making microfusion cells. The majority of ammo in the Capital Wasteland likely came from military installations or was handloaded by wastelanders.

Well, we are in The Commonwealth, the most advanced place in all of the post apocalyptic US, so they sure must know an easy way to make microfusion/energy cells, if the PC can make energy/microfusion cells himself with the appropriate cells, can't the institute do that with ease, considering they have the smartest scientists around?

Don't forget The Pitt, which has been making ammo for a year or so now, and supplying it to its people, who go out all the way to the C.W.

Good point, and I suppose they could use bullets to barter with the local slavers in the area as well. They then barter and trade with the caravans, and that gets cycled through the rest of the area from there.

I always wondered how people felt about the fact that Crazy Wolfgang and friends all did business with Paradise Falls. Maybe it's considered a necessary evil to keep them from raiding other places. I also find it counterintuitive for them to go to the Temple of the Union, seeing as the slaves seem to want to keep a fairly low profile, while simultaneously ignoring Big Town, a community they actually pass by,

I wouldn't mind seeing the holorifle (Dead Money) make a come back in Fallout 4.

yeah somhow i don't think boston is hurting for ammo we don't even know what kind of miltary bases were in the area other than mit.

its bin long time does pitt start tradeing with CW at the end of quest line?

Again I just [censored] adore gauss technology its awesome in halo its so simplistic yet so advanced its just a projectile being fired at a crazy speed with huge kinetic payload I love it! And from what I seen in the trailer gun mechanics seem fluid unlike fallout/nv

The E3 demo suggests that Energy Weapons and Guns deal separate types of damage. Power armor seems to be better at resisting Gun damage than Energy Weapons. Mutant animals on the other hand, seem to be better at resisting Energy damage than bullet damage. With that said, I think that it would be interesting if energy weapons could also fill a more "elemental" role compared to guns.

-Laser and Plasma are the generalist base types. Laser is faster and accurate at any range. Plasma is stronger but slower and less precise.

-Cryo is relatively low damage but causes slowing and immobilization freeze effects on the enemy. Heck, it'd be pretty cool if it temporarily debuffed resistance to physical attacks too- imagine freezing an enemy and then shattering them with a melee attack.

-Pulse/Tesla/EMP is excellent vs robots, synths, and power armor (probably damage bonus + stun effects) but is largely ineffective vs biological enemies.

-Flamers/Incinerators svck vs machines but are very good vs biological enemies. Cause DoT and maybe a chance for fear or panic.

-Gauss weapons could deal very high kinetic gun-type damage but use the energy weapons skill/perk rank for its performance.

As i was reminded by New Vegas: make sure to include the Incinerator as an Energy Weapon. Napalm artillery FTW

Ive always felt like Fire-based weaponry should be inherently covered under Explosives. Flamers are old-tech compared to Laser and Plasma weaponry and it just feels out of place to put them in the same category while fire-itself is a prime component of most explosive devices

Incendiary projectile weapons included in Energy weapons always felt clunky to me... They seem like they'd be clunky in Guns too. They're the vestigial bit from the removal of Big Guns when the others found places in Explosives, E-weaps, or Guns.

IMO, they may be a less clunky fit in Guns, because they release energy through a form of combustion instead of some electrical or (non-explosive) atomic release. Same reasoning why Gauss fits better with E-weaps, because the energy is released through an electrical (or ultimately atomic since it's a MFC power source) discharge.

Well, isn't the whole skill situation in F4 still mostly unknown? Are the weapons even classed like in previous games?

Well, regardless, just include them

The trailer had a shot from inside an operational steel foundry, so they probably have some kind of munitions depots running (question is who's runnin' them?)

That would actually be great, especially the freezing and shattering part, but we still don't know anything yet, maybe cryo is a strong weapon not a weak one.

Also the Tesla weapons actually do huge damage against both biological and robots, remember the Tesla Cannon? That was extremely dangerous, and let's not forget the melee bssed Antenna you get in Old World Blues, that uses Tesla power to deliver great damage


I love that rifle, it was simple, effective and has great damage output, and it looks super cool, and it has a scope!

One of the best energy based weapons in all of Fallout imo

Nothing official yet. So, there is hope yet but I just haven't seen any proof of it existing in the first place :/

That's true, but do keep in mind that with explosives, it isn't the fiery parts that are supposed to do damage (incendiary grenades and such being the exception), but rather all that horrifying metal shrapnel. And while it isn't exactly as cutting tech as Laser or Plasma weapons, fire is a form of energy, so it does fit into that category of weapons.

Consider the Flamer the equivalent of a revolver or single shot lever action rifle compared to automatic pistols and machine guns.

Well that's better than hearing they're definitely gone.

If they do have ammo types, I hope that they don't try to kludge an equivalent system like FONV's different cell types. I think an E-weap should have a much bigger load of "shots" in its "magazine", but the e-weap has an intensity setting that varies the damage, wear rate, and cell consumption rate. It would make the "change ammo" button into "change ammo/setting" button.

Preston: "Maximum setting. If you fired this, you would have vaporized me."

Mr/Mrs. 101: "It's my first ray gun..."

Shock waves from the explosion also are a major damaging force. They're the core aspect of an explosion: a highly energetic and sudden outward burst. It imparts that damaging energy into the fluid medium (IE: air or water) itself.

In FONV, I considered the early/mid plasma weapons to be the E-weap anologs to the early/mid cowboy weapons. I'm doubting they'll have a Wild West feel in FO4, so cowboy guns might not be as much of a thing as they were in FONV.

Absence of evidence is not necessarily evidence of absence. Remember that whenever another fan has a freakout that something "wasn't shown so therefore it's not in the game".