Heat in RJ guns is either bugged or flawed. Less damage per heat generated = BETTER heat efficiency.

[Uthael]

For the sake of making math simple, I'll make up some numbers. Bear with me.

Check this hypothetical gun #1's stats:
Shots per second (Rate of fire, ROF): 10
Heat per shot (heat accretion, HPS): 100
Damage per shot (DPSh): 600

This gun deals (600/100=) 6 damage per heat (DPH),
(600*10=) 6000 damage per second (DPS) and
builds up (100*10=) 1000 heat per second (HPS).

According to Wiki, the default max heat cap is 1000. Let's say that it overheats at 1001, it'll make math simpler.
After 1 second of firing, you'll have to let this gun cool down or it will overheat at 1001 heat.
According to Wiki (again), all the guns cool down at the rate of 500 heat per second.
It takes (1000/500=) 2 seconds for this gun to cool down.
That's 1 second of firing and 2 seconds of cooling down.
With this gun, you can deal 6000 damage every 3 seconds. That's a sustained DPS of (6000/3=) 2000.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gun #2:
ROF: 10
HPSh: 20
DPSh: 240

DPH = (240/20=) 12
DPS = (240*10=) 2400
HPS = (20*10=) 200

This gun can fire for (1000/200=) 5 seconds before it overheats.
During those 5 seconds, you can deal (5*2400=) 12000 damage.
It takes the same 2 seconds for this gun to cool down.
That's 5 seconds of firing and 2 seconds of cooling down.
With this gun, you can deal 12000 damage every 7 seconds. That's a sustained DPS of (12000/7=) 1714.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gun #2 has double the heat efficiency (12 vs 6) and yet, it has lower sustained DPS. This makes a lot of nonsense.

Why does this happen?

Because the guns aren't cooling down during shooting. It's as if the gun's heatsinks are detached during firing. Damage per heat matters, but not as much as it should.

Because of this, Zetki weapons are the winner in sustained DPS for every weapon. There are no tradeoffs. Other manufacturers aren't sidegrades, they're inferior.

Edit: I suggest talking to a Mechwarrior fan to fix the math around this issue. ... To rebalance the weapons around some time-to-kill number or something.

[Teridax68]

The reasoning and math here are sound, and I agree with assessment: so long as weapons don't lose heat while firing, lower heat generation per shot in exchange for lower DPS just means lower DPS. If instead those other weapons offered quicker heat recharge, or Zetki weapons were the only ones to not cool down while firing, there'd be more of a contest, but otherwise there's no point in minimizing heat generation when heat goes down at the same pace. Personally, I'd just get rid of the overheat mechanic entirely, as it doesn't actually add gameplay and merely makes turrets clunkier to use than they ought to be.

[Uthael]

Personally, I like the heat mechanic and wouldn't like it gone. Instead, please improve on it. The people who don't like dealing with heat could install heat-efficient weapons which would never overheat. But at the moment, there's no such option.

The reason I wrote the topic is that there's no much weapon customization or choice. Zetki Photor is the best sustained DPS weapon. Apoc does slightly more, but at the cost of shorter range and slow projectile speed.
I'm willing to bet Reflex Aim intrinsic only leads straight line movement, so Apoc would totally not be worth it.

[Uthael]

(doublepost, please delete)