Right now with the railgun, you hold the trigger and keep holding until it eventually just fires automatically after fully charging. This not only makes aiming significantly harder, it's just plain harder to actually control unless you have perfect timing (I, unfortunately, do not, but some people do I guess.) I would propose a change to the mechanism. Charge up while holding, then fire when releasing. (Though what would be even nicer is if it could support a multistage trigger button like that of the Saitek X52 Hotas which has two buttons on the fire trigger, one for about halfway down, then another for all the way down. It could charge on halfway, then fire on all the way. But I do understand not all HOTASes work like this and also not everyone even has a HOTAS in the first place, so if such a thing was implemented it may be best if it were optional.) Though it may then be ideal if there were a way to release the charge without firing to avoid friendly fire if, for example, you've accidentally charged it while near a station or something like that. Well, I'm not quite sure what the best way to implement that would be. We don't want to have too many key binds for such a thing after all. With a multi-stage trigger switch like that X52's it would make sense if you hold that button to charge and release without pressing all the way to release the charge, but I'm not sure about if it uses a single button and fires when released. The best I can think of would just be turning off the module entirely, but if the interface uses the same fire button it will treat it as released from the weapon if you focus the UI. Perhaps if the UI is focused it could just decharge without firing on its own (and, after all, you probably can't aim very well if you're focused on the UI anyway.) That keeps it pretty simple and minimal.
Of course, I'm sure someone will argue this makes it "too easy." While I don't agree with that (it's really just a more natural and reasonable way to control it,) I will agree to a bit of a compromise that also is just more natural: it should build up heat while charging, not while firing (which, IMO, just makes sense.) That would also mean that as long as you hold it charged it would continue to build heat, so firing as soon as possible is still ideal. I don't think it should do full heat buildup once fully charged, but it should produce some heat continuously as it is the energy buildup in the circuits which produces the heat after all. The railgun produces a lot of heat, so even if it reduces at full charge it's still going to matter and encourage one to not overdo it. Especially in ships more prone to overheating (which already have to keep an eye on the heat when using the railgun, but it's far less predictable since it only produces the heat after firing instead of until it, so it actually would make that less confusing.)
Of course, I'm sure someone will argue this makes it "too easy." While I don't agree with that (it's really just a more natural and reasonable way to control it,) I will agree to a bit of a compromise that also is just more natural: it should build up heat while charging, not while firing (which, IMO, just makes sense.) That would also mean that as long as you hold it charged it would continue to build heat, so firing as soon as possible is still ideal. I don't think it should do full heat buildup once fully charged, but it should produce some heat continuously as it is the energy buildup in the circuits which produces the heat after all. The railgun produces a lot of heat, so even if it reduces at full charge it's still going to matter and encourage one to not overdo it. Especially in ships more prone to overheating (which already have to keep an eye on the heat when using the railgun, but it's far less predictable since it only produces the heat after firing instead of until it, so it actually would make that less confusing.)