None of my energy weapons will switch to alternate ammo. The only weapons I've been able to go to alternate ammo with are the 9mm pistol and the Service rifle. No other weapon switches between ammo types. I'm guessing it's some sort of bug. Others have reported ammo switching issues so I saw no need to report it again.

You can convert max charged rounds back to regular? How? I don't see that option in my crafting bench.

Yeah, Energy Weapons has seriously been nerfed this game -- and I hate it.

Don't get me wrong, the Gatling Laser, especially Vengeance, was ridiculously overpowered in Fallout 3, but now they're about as useful as a spud gun. Of course, DT is a great system, but I think this is too much.
Perhaps I'm using the Gatling wrong, I don't know, and I'm yet to take the Laser Commander perk, so I'll reserve full judgement until then.

Really, the only weapons that'll do considerable damage to anything are the Plasma Caster (fair enough, this is a great weapon, especially with Meltdown), the Multiplas Rifle and the Gauss. I hear tell that the RCW is fantastic with a certain mod; anyone willing to enlighten me? I'd be very appreciative.

I'm acting as if Energy Weapons are completely broken -- they're not, and the three weapons above have brought a lot of joy, but changes have to be made. Hopefully, Obsidian will sort this out in the next patch.

I suspect energy weapons are bugged as a whole, as are all AP ammo.

The game seems intended to provide three main ways to bypass armor. Critical hits, AP ammo, and specific perks (shotgun surgeon).

I think critical hits are working fine. I also think the perks are working fine. I suspect, however, that AP ammo does not work at all, or at least as intended.

I suspect that energy weapons were all supposed to have some measure of AP effect, which is why there is no specific AP charges for energy weapons. I also suspect the mechanism for the energy weapons AP effect is the same as the mechanism for AP ammo in guns. I think that mechanism is broken. This would explain why energy weapons (and guns with AP ammo for that matter) only seems to bypass armor when a critical hit is scored, or when a perk is involved.

There definitely is something funny going on with AP ammo. It seems to have no more effect than with regular ammo. The only exception being critical hits and when perks apply.

I've only begun to test my theory, but I would not rule anything out yet.

Coincidently, does anyone remember that AP ammo never seemed to work in fallout 2 as well? I believe it took several months to discover this, if I remember correctly. It eventually became a documented bug that never got fixed. It is a very tricky thing to spot.