For my homebrew im thinking energy weapons should get -1 damage in their medium bracket and -2 in their long bracket (as well as exploding when critted) so as to be just a bit less obscenely efficient and give ballistics a little more room for relevance

So four Medium Laser hits could still cause 20 damage if you're hitting at MG range, but at 5-6 hexes you'll need a fifth MLas, and at 7-9 hexes you'll need not just a sixth but a seventh, which means 21 heat from 7tons of laser (28tons fully sinked) instead of merely 12 heat from 4tons of laser (16tons fully sinked) to compete with 7 heat points from a standard 14ton AC/20 (22tons fully sinked with 1ton of ammo)