You'll want to add this line to your .wpn file:
"beamFireOnlyOnFullCharge":true,
That's it for the easy part. Now the hard part.
The ship AI can't really handle long chargeups. Values greater than 1 in that field are just a bad idea. That said, yeah; look at the Ristreza variant that does something similar. If I were in your shoes, I'd rig up a system that shuts off all energy weapons while it's charging, something that feels good thematically. I would still keep your chargeup pretty short; 5 seconds is reasonable.
You may want to drop a line to Nicke535 here on the forum, as he's the person who was likely responsible for that code.
Odd. I'm quite sure I've put that in and it still behaves the same... hold on.
Yup, I did put it in. It still seem to start fireing without waiting for 9 seconds.
{
"specClass":"beam",
"id":"vns_reflex_cannon",
"type":"ENERGY",
"size":"LARGE",
"displayArcRadius":1500,
"turretUnderSprite":"",
"turretSprite":"graphics/weapons/animated/vns_reflexcannon/vns_reflex_Cannon_00.png",
"turretGlowSprite":"",
"hardpointSprite":"graphics/weapons/animated/vns_reflexcannon/vns_reflex_Cannon_00.png",
"hardpointGlowSprite":"",
"numFrames":12,
"frameRate":10,
"interruptibleBurst":true,
"beamFireOnlyOnFullCharge":true,
"turretOffsets":[12, 0],
"turretAngleOffsets":[0],
"hardpointOffsets":[12, 0],
"hardpointAngleOffsets":[0],
"fringeColor":[250,250,0,100],
"coreColor":[5,0,10,155],
"glowColor":[220,180,0,0],
"width":120.0,
#"textureType":ROUGH,
"textureType":["graphics/fx/vns_beam_core_1.png","graphics/fx/vns_beam_core_HE2.png"],
"textureScrollSpeed":-100.0,
"pixelsPerTexel":5.0,
"animationType":"GLOW", # NONE, GLOW, MUZZLE_FLASH, SMOKE
"pierceSet":[PROJECTILE_FF,PROJECTILE_NO_FF,PROJECTILE_FIGHTER],
"fireSoundOne":"vns_Reflex_charge",
"fireSoundTwo":"vns_Reflex_fire",
"fireSoundThree":"vns_Reflex_powerdown",
and from weapon_data:
Reflex Cannon,vns_reflex_cannon,5,,50000,1500,2500,,100,30,10,40,1,0.05,1,ENERGY,,3000,9,1,,,,,,,5000,,,,,"SYSTEM,SHOW_IN_CODEX","LR, energy10",,,,,,,,,,,,,,20005
And thanks, I'll look into the Ristreza.
The ship in question only has 4 small weapon slots for PD (and 2 med missiles), so shutting down all energy weapons seems a bit pointless. I might still try to do it, as it sounds right.