Weapons power draw does not make sense to me

Underhook

U
Hi All. Not sure if this is an oversight/mistake from the developers but I noticed some strange power demands from weaponry.

I have a Viper kitted out for bounty hunting: The viper has 2 x medium weapon slots (class 2) and 2x small weapon slots (class 1)

here is the weapons I run
Small weapon slot: 2x G1 gimballed multi cannon current draw = 0.37 each
Medium weapon slot: 2 x F2 gimballed pulse laser current draw = 0.60 each

I thought I might swap the loadout around and use small lasers and medium multi cannons.

Small weapons slot: 2 x G1 gimballed pulse laser current draw = 0.37 each
Medium weapon slot: 2 x F2 gimballed multi cannon current draw = .64 each

The 2nd loadout results in my life support switching off, which I could live with....pun intended. But it also switches off my KWS which is no good.
Just for reference I have the best power plant (A3) and power distributor (A3) available (FSD switches off too and I have disabled cargo hatch).

Firstly, I think its odd the the small multi cannon draws the same amount of power as the small pulse laser. Secondly, it seems bizzare to me that the medium multicannon actually draws more power than the medium pulse laser.

Am I missing something? Does it make sense to other CMDR's?
 

soma

soma
Have you tried setting module priorities? Right hand side panel. Set modules not essential for combat (such as cargo hatch, FSD, FSD interdictor) to priority 3. When your weapons deploy, the priority 3 systems will turn off and you should have enough energy to power your weapons without losing life support.
 
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Flappers

Flappers
I think it makes sense for balance purposes.

With multicannons, you can fire them more so than lasers. They may utilize more power of your ship, but the heat generation is much lower. Thus sustained fire of multicannons last longer than lasers.

It's like - Good at one thing, but bad at another.
Lasers - low power intake, high heat generation
Multicannons - higher power intake, low heat generation

As for the systems switching off. Each ship has limited capability. You can't take a Viper and put every module at rating A. Otherwise you'll experience over power usage.
It's the same with the Python. Even the highest rated power supply, won't be able to handle all modules being at rating A.
It's done for balance, and I personally think it's good. It allows for more versatility in module setup.

Things shutting off... you can adjust the priority of items turning off when over using power. My suggestion - FSD. The FSD uses up quite a bit of power, and when in combat, you don't realy need it. Sheath your weapons away and it comes back online.
The cargo hatch doesn't use any power unless it's in use. So disabling that won't make much of a difference
 
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Underhook

U
OK. Looks like I worded my post really badly since every body has missed the point I was trying to make.

So, here it is. Why would a multicannon use more power than a laser. I would have assumed that a laser would consume around 100 x more power that a gun. The guns rounds have all their energy stored in the round as gun powder.
 
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