I ran some tests with the various ships in game to see how the Power Output and the Max Weapon Energy fields in ships.tbl affect the primary weapon capability and I got some puzzling results. (I use FS2 open 3.6.9)
The first test I did was to drain the ship's gun energy and then measure the time it took to recharge to full. The ships I tested were:
Ursa (4.5 power output, 150 max weapon energy)
Herc mark II (3 output, 150 max weap energy)
Myrmidon (2.4 output, 150 max weap)
Tauret (3.0 output, 100 max weap)
The result was that all ships recharged to full around 30 seconds with energy allocation at default configuration. At max gun energy, they all recharged in 10 seconds. From this test, apparently power output and the max weapon energy field does not affect the total recharge time.
The second test I did was to see how long a ship can sustain a weapon, by firing a 2 gun Akheton SDG until gun energy ran out and measuring the time it took to reach that stage. The results were:
With default energy allocations:
Serapis (150 max weap energy, 3.4 power output): 40sec
perseus (150 max weap, 2 output): 40 sec
Ursa (150 max weap, 4.5 output): 40 sec
Seth (100 max weap, 3 output): 18 sec
Tauret (100 max weap, 3 output): 18 sec
---------
With 0 gun energy allocation:
Serapis (150 max weap energy, 3.4 power output): 17-18sec
perseus (150 max weap, 2 output): 17-18 sec
Seth (100 max weap, 3 output): 11-12 sec
Tauret (100 max weap, 3 output): 11-12 sec
From this, it is apparent that max weapon energy works as advertised for energy capacity, as ships with 150 max weapon energy can sustain fire for 1.5 times as long as ships with 100 max weapon energy when the weapon recharge involved is 0.
However, with default energy configuration, it's apparent that the Power Output factor doesn't seem to have any effect on weapon recharge. However, it seems that ships with 150 max weapon energy seem to recharge faster than ships with 100 max weapon energy, as they can sustain fire for about 120% longer, not the 50% longer it would be if their recharge were the same. In fact, if we assume that ships with 150 max weapon energy recharge 1.5 times as faster than ships with 100 max energy, the numbers kinda work out (note that I just used the ingame clock to measure the time, so the max margin of error is probably 1 second or so). So, apparently, the max weapon energy field affects the weapon recharge in addition to the total weapon capacity.
So my question is:
So the Power Output factor doesn't have any effect on the gun energy? What does it affect than? Just the shield recharge?
Also, a somewhat related question: How does the Lamprey cannon affect shields? (The techroom says it does) I know that it drains afterburner and weapon energy, but I can't seem to see any effect on shields other than the shield damage it does to the quadrant it hits.
