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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DreadPirateMurphy" data-source="post: 2746121" data-attributes="member: 20715">Energy weapons have a few advantages over ballistic weapons.Time to target is effectively zero, making them impossible to intercept (other than with armor).Aiming is trivial -- no windage, no gravity, and you can adjust aim until the target goes boom.  Even in modern firearms, recoil does have an impact, which is why sniper rifles are designed with floating barrels.Assuming infinite power (which is a HUGE assumption), you will never run out of ammunition."Energy" is a broad term that can apply to a variety of effects -- sonics for disabling foes, masers that fry circuitry and burn, particle accelerators -- and those are just the ones that actually exist.  Sci-fi has the afore-mentioned meson guns, disintegrators, antimatter rifles, etc.  Flexibility could be an advantage if a single weapon can have multiple effects -- but you could also argue that the capability already exists with shotguns and grenade launchers.If power is infinite and electronics are dirt cheap, then I could see ballistics going away, but that is really the only way.</blockquote>