I am a huge fan of ballistics. Especially gatling guns. I just can't get enough BRRRRRTTT or RATATATAT! In 3.13 my loadouts were as follows: Avenger Stalker: Revenant + MantisX2 Hurricane: RevenantX2 + whatever my gunner likes Cutlass Blue: MantisX4 Imagine how disappointed I was after trying the same loadouts in 3.14! I was able to stretch the ammo out between two light fighters. But anything more, such as a Cutlass and I am in trouble. I can't imagine how many trips to the station I need to kill a hammerhead with a gatling loadout. I see what CIG wants and is going for. CR really likes the idea of mixed loadouts. They also want Energy and ballistics to FEEL different. But the way guns are now, I feel like we are being forced into mixed loadouts. It's no longer a choice. Worse yet, gatlings in general don't really feel viable at all. They go empty too quickly and take real sustained fire to deal meaningful damage. Couple that with the way NPC fighters flop around in our desync riddled space and even I am just having to come to terms with the fact that my favorite weapons are now limited to a purely ceremonial role. And then there's ballistic cannons. They actually have a fair amount of ammo. I guess CIG stated that cannons are intended to be more focused around sustained DPS. That just seems so weird to me. Shouldn't gatlings be the sustained DPS and cannons be the coup de grace finisher? At this point I wonder if trying to differentiate ballistics and energy is really worth the trouble? Would being hit with a powerful energy bolt really be all that different than being shot with a high caliber bullet? Do bullets and lasers really NEED to be all that different in effect? Why not just have them both work more or less the same? The only difference could be that Lasers never run out of ammo but suck up a more power to use. And of course ballistics have more options bullet-wise. Anyways, the important message I want to get across is the question of "Why should we be pushed so hard into choosing mixed loadouts?" Why can't we all just fly with the armament style that excites us without feeling like we are being punished for doing so?