Of course, there is one answer to the laser cooler issue...
Increase the heat from the lasers markedly, and then introduce a laser cooler to bring it back to today's levels, and make every ai ship buy one
Of course, the root of that problem is the simple fact that in the old 8 bit versions, all you every shot up was kraits, sidewinders, adders and the odd viper and python/anaconda. Almost all of whom did not have shield boosters or anything else worthy of note. Now we are faced with thargoid battleships, rogue frigates and blank monk gunships... Oh, and don't forget the fact that realistic views from the ship mean that all bad guys at extreme range no-longer appear as a nice handy white pixel you can shoot up with ease long before they arm any kind of weapon.
At a rough guestimate, I'd say that the Oolite military lasers do heat up faster than the original BBC ones, but the difference is small, under a quarter of a second from cold to overheated.
Of course, my own biggest shock was in sun-diving, the BBC/Electron version (which is the only one I ever really played), had cabin heat based on distance from the sun, whereas Oolite has you keep warming up if you're close.
This thread, is hereby, officially headed off topic in a suicide sun-dive
Commander Monty, a Python Class Cruiser driver
Iron assed bulk haulers for the win!
Of the two trumbles which escaped today from Lave station, only 473 have been located....