I was posting about the details of the issue you started as the OP. I didn't say that any of those factors should / should not be used. However, they are factual elements of the various energy weapons, so they are important to consider (see below). As far as what is needed, I only stated that EVE visual effects need to be included, or something similar, since modders already showed how to do so (and they really were needed compared to the effects projectiles were given). Since you bring up the subject, let me be explicit about what is needed as far as my points are concerned.

Your subjective preference for what would make a good implementation of energy weapons is only yours, not all player's. It is totally untrue that an invisible, recoil-less, soundless energy weapon is a terrible idea. Obviously you can see if you hit or not because you would still see the effect (as I mentioned, this is what occurs with such energy beams in real life). It would be far more satisfying to use than weapons that make no sense / violate actual principles of such weapons.

Why do you think you can see bullet streaks? Because you can actually see bullet trails in real life in many instances, obviously.

For many players, particularly players who want to role play intelligent, tech-oriented characters, using energy weapons that violate actual behavior / physics of their claimed energy forms is immersion-breaking. For example, there was a reply above about the silliness of claiming that there is a "cryogenic laser". There is no such thing and never could be because of what a laser is and how it works (hint: "laser" is simply an acronym that was accepted as a word once it became well-known, and originally simply meant "Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation" ... which is why a "freezing laser" makes no sense at all since freezing anything removes energy). It might be feasible to somehow make a device that removes heat from a target and freezes it, but it wouldn't be a laser.

Anyway, the point I was making is that energy weapons need to be believable and thus need to be based on their actual energy properties. Otherwise, the lack of basis in actual physics makes it very hard to attempt to role play characters who specialize in such weapons and and related technologies.

So yes, the various points I made, or most of them, need to be included in order to effectively role play an energy weapons, tech-oriented type of character concept. Or there needs to be some explanation offered (i.e., lore you can find) regarding why the techs work as they do rather than as we currently understand such physics.

Should be interesting to see how they implement the various energy weapon types along with the seemingly large variety of mod options. I'm hoping they manage to define unique advantages to each energy type whilst offering meaningful variety with weapon modifications too.

Would be cool to have some secondary fire options. I'd love a laser rifle with adjustable beam splitter option so you could take a single range shot or switch to a split beam scattered shot that works best up close. Maybe taking a long shot would require a short charge up to emphasize it's use best at range and the scatter shot might be instant but burn through battery life faster as well as less effective at long range.

i dont think you understood what i was saying. everyone wearing one type of armor is not a solution. Energy weapons, imo, should be the most powerful weapons in the game, but in the past 2 fallouts they have been overall the weakest.

there should be some mechanism that nulls out much of the damage that some people could use, not just a perk on an armor, it would have to be limited in some way so it doesn't nullify everything. but there should be some form of counter measure to energy weapons that's somewhat accessible, but not overpowered to the point of making energy weapons useless. much like power armor should be able to block the majority of small arms fire for a duration, i.e. it can block 100 rounds of 9mm fire until it starts to break down. 70 rounds of 357, 50 rounds of 45mm, 20 rounds of .50 cals, etc. all of this can be adjusted by mods, but there should be more thought put into efficacy of armor.

the way i mod the games, is make the armor very strong but make limb and head damage highly susceptible. for a human npc, a headshot results in instant death 80%-100% of the time depending on the caliber of ammo used. You shouldn't be able to get shot in the head and survive unless you're a super mutant. This would make armor far more important and put a greater emphasis on tactics.

I respectfully disagree that strict adherance to real life physics is necessary for roleplaying a scientifically inclinded character as that same restriction would cause many scratched heads about the many other fantastical elements of the Fallout universe, such as the properties of radiation, mutations like Ghouls, FEV, portable fusion/fission power, Psykers, and lots of other things. It could also be that such a weapon would be tactically useless or outclassed by ballistic weapons if operating on "science" rather than "Science!".Many people also aren't aware of how a hypothetical laser weapon would work, and would be initially confused and disappointed that they picked up a laser rifle and got an invisible burning thing and not the good ol' pew pew Star Wars gun one has come to expect. As you said to me, your own tastes aren't necessarily everyone else's.

As a side note, I've never had the opportunity to play with Fallout 3 modded with EVE, assuming that's what you're talking about.

But there isnt any inherent defense against energy weapons in the wasteland other than extremely thick armor (there was a perk that made any metal armor more resistant to lasers in NV) and Tesla Armor which was made explicitly to protect against Energy Weapons. Since EW are the most "advanced" weapons it makes sense that they should be represented as such. Able to cut through armor, harder to find ammo for, harder to maintain (due to material overheat/melting). It wouldnt make sense to give every random raider a solid defense against Energy Weapons unless you want to give them all energy shields (like the Aliens had in Mothership Zeta on higher difficulties) which i highly doubt you would

I believe RPing a character in a universe adheres to the laws of that universe and any intelligent proficiencies they may have are restricted to said universe. So i agree that using RL science is counter-productive to RP in a universe that has it's own science

Actually, T-51b power armor has a 10 micron thick layer of an ablative silver coating to deflect laser weapons. I looked up the numbers from the first games, and the DR and DT against lasers were 2X and 1.5X respectively. The increase was a little less for Advanced Power Armor, but it still existed. In 4, it appears that the lightning bolt symbol denotes energy weapon damage, and the resistances shown for the power armors were lower on the lightning bolt stat than it was for the crosshairs (which I assume it conventional kinetic energy).

It still might be higher than alternative armours. Raider armour will almost assuredly have less defence against lasers than power armours.

I wish they could improve the targeting with laser weapons because shots for me feel too randomized, not to mention the ammunition doesn't do anything unique despite being energy. In other games you could at least charge up and focus shots and burn enemies. In FO3 laser weapons dont really do anything.

As per Fallout's lore Laser do exactly what they are supposed to do

As weapons, they're barely useful and theres nothing special about them. The lore has nothing to do with functionality and the triggered effect.

it has everything to do with it. It uses energy from a Cell to fire a projected beam for a second that cuts through armor and flesh and causes disintegration

Err... whut?

Not sure how you've played, but laser weapons are very much viable with the proper setup, skill & perks.

Get your combat luck up and crouch and you'll snipe-crit most enemies before they're even aware of you. Even the puny laser pistol with mods is viable in the endgame.

All I really want is a "silenced" energy weapon, or some sort of sound dampening part. Pretty happy that we can basically make any energy weapon we want now. A solid (continuous) beam laser would be a cool addition too.

you keep taking what i'm saying to extremes. it sounds like you just want to be argumentative.

ofc not everyone would own something like this; but the only way to balance energy weapons now is to reduce their power, which doesn't make sense. a highly concentrated beam of energy should melt through leather armor. there's a hundred different ways to balance this in terms of armor, implants, armor mods, shields, etc,etc.

the fact that its not addressed is my issue.

Three quick observations from E3:

In F4 Laser weapons do have recoil.

The laser mod "Beam Focuser" does not describe itself as having any greater penetration capability. So it is possible that lasers do not have any speical AP qualities in F4.

Plasma weapons are now half energy/physical. So laser are the only known, pure energy weapons (at this time). So perhaps they now have a greater role, especially against the bots.

A human body is mostly liquid, just think of it as the liquid in the body flash heating to steam and exploding.