OK, this has been bugging me ever since fallout 4 came out. iv noticed that there was a change in how some weapons work (ammo cartridges, look, even how it works). the plasma rifle or any plasma weapons take a plasma cartridges instead of Micro Fusion Cells, and that the lazer pistol takes fusion cells instead of Energy Cells. Same with the Gatling lazer, plasma pistol, and the gauss rifle. i can understand the need to change the ammo types to better suit the crafting system, but is there any cannon lore behind the weapons we see in fallout 4? or are these a retcon of these weapons and these are how they are supposed to work in bethesda's eyes? i cant be the only one bugged by this...

IMO, it looks retcon'd to me. In the first two fallout games, gatling laser was powered by MFC's. Fallout 3 & NV made it use ECP's (Electron Charge Packs) and now Fallout 4 has it using FC's. Plasma weapons are similar. F1 through F3 had them using MFC's and SEC's. Now they currently use Plasma cartridge.

I think it was done for streamlining. If you look at other aspects of the game, they did that too.

yeah that is true, but it still is kind of annoying to change them over. its a pet peeve of mine for a retcon like that to come along just to suit a certain mechanic of the game.

The ripper went from a toothed electric blade to a bicycle chain. Looks like it might be good for hair removal.

I simply can't stand the artwork on some of the weapons which renders them nearly unusable in 1st person.

Those changes make sense. Plasma is super heated matter. You can't produce it using energy cells (of any type) alone. Laser is focused light on the other hand. It works similar to flash lamp. Therefore it's realistic that plasma and laser weapons use different cartridges.

Reason why laser pistol and laser rifle now use the same cartridges is that they are essentially the same weapon. Modification of grip makes it either rifle or pistol.

Gauss rifle fire solid projectiles propelled by magnetic fields of the gun, therefore it also make sense that it uses different ammo.

Haha, what? How is it streamlining? They changed the name of an ammo type, and made different weapon types use different ammo types (which makes sense). Is everything streamlining now? :S

Does it really matter to the lore whether the Laser Pistol uses "Small Energy Cells" or "Fusion Cells"? Or whether the artwork and reloading animations are different?

I agree with you here, I actually like the new laser and plasma weapons and ammo, but some projectile weapons such as the combat rifle and assault rifle look really janky. For example the combat rifle is reusing most of the same model from the shotgun, even the magazine well on the rifle is still wide for shotgun shells, they just stuck a narrower magazine in there and it looks odd. I feel like they ran out of time for this weapon and hashed it out of the shotgun model.