The one problem with mimicing ROF with mounts reducing size is unintended weapon usages. Mainly the Unique Massive weapons. Create a gatling mount of 10% size/damage/cost/etc and just imagine a ship with 10 Massive Ionic Dispersers with Gatling mounts. Instead of a 100kt weapon with one chance of hitting in 30 rounds you get 10 weapons doing 10 points damage each, more chances to hit. That and the cost of repairing a ship with 60 gatling mounted Anti-Matter torps is horrendous for a race with a low repair rate (or even a high one).
"Gatling weapons wear out after significant use (how to accomplish this; I don't know)"
Could be done with a MechWarrior Heat/Heat sink type of system but IMO this would make micro management even more tedious. They could always have a seperate 'Supply System', ie once it is depleted it must regenerate from the ships supplies before it can fire multiple times per round again. (kinda like shields and shield regerators I guess).
[ May 26, 2002, 04:37: Message edited by: Deathstalker ]