I wouldn't reduce lasers to one type, as I think there can be a lot of room to work with in the laser system to keep it working. If nothing else, almost anything you can justify with autocannons or PPCs can find room in a laser concept.
Don't like pulse lasers right now, but will include multi-shot autocannons like Ultra or RACs? There you go, convert pulse lasers to being the Rotary Laser Guns which provide the multi-shot option.
Where the craziness lies with the lasers is justification for making them stronger in one way or another. Heavy lasers, x-pulse lasers, and re-engineered lasers all represent that justification of making a more powerful version to "keep up with the Jones'".
List of my ideas right now, standard weapons only, no experimental/special weapons, not a finalized draft 1:
Energy:
-Lasers, 3 sizes, have accuracy bonus
-PPC, 1 size/type?, interference effect, typical energy-primary weapon, very familiar overall
-Plasma weapons, 2 types (plasma rifle and plasma railgun), heat transfer as special effect, plasma railgun trades damage and heat transfer for longer range
-TSEMP or DEMP (directed EMP), 1 type, zero-damage weapon that can cause component crits but cannot shut down (military) units, also has interference effect identical to that of PPCs'
Note: Lasers get accuracy bonus because we are talking about lightspeed weapons, the only limits are the targeting system and mechanical limitations of the laser weapon mount and those are generous enough lasers are accurate. More detail for reasoning later.
Ballistic:
-Gauss rifles, 1-3 sizes? THE sniper weapon (unsure about whether i'll have AP or Hyper Assault Gauss rifles)
-Autocannons, 3-4 sizes, cluster weapons (merges ultras and rotaries into them, along with LB-X cluster shots) with static number of shots, the usual ballistic-primary weapon, has flak bonus vs air, medium-long range for all variants (no nonsense inverse power/range progression here), no jamming
-Hyper-velocity Cannons, sorta poor man's Gauss rifle, primarily intended for vehicles and 'Mechs from states with limited technological capabilities, has some ammo options, long range, functionally successor to standard BT autocannons and spiritual successor to "rifle" cannons and hypervelocity ACs (but without blowing up)
Note: Autocannons now function as their name implies, they are rapid fire large caliber guns after all.
Missiles:
-Long range guided missiles, 3-4 sizes, long range (possibly longest of all) with focus on indirect fire
-Unguided rockets, 3-4 sizes, short effective range but overall long range, capable of indirect fire (hex-wide saturation bombardment), merging of rocket launchers and MRMs with dash of Soviet Katyasha/Grad/etc. rocket launchers
-Short range guided missiles, ?? sizes, ??? (really haven't figured these out yet, probably like SRMs of now in practice)
Note: all missiles feature variety of warheads with special effects and are intended to be used with those more often than not perhaps.
Note: Missiles are still under work because i envision them having very limited ammo special purpose/high power role rather than spammable "arrows", but i'm not sure about this yet. I'll probably leave them more familiar than make them special though. Thunderbolt successor might get that special role, but it'd be relegated to "experimental" weapons and not a part of standard set in such case.
Other weapons:
-Flamer, 1 type, uses ammo (i have reasons for dropping the usual flamer, will explain later), heat transfer along with damage
-MG, 1 size?, uses ammo but ammo is baked into weapon itself, no ammo explosion (really wanted to get rid of the strongest explosive known), primarily anti-infantry weapon (with possible flak bonus vs air, reasons later) and cheap filler
-Melee weapon, one type for kick-strength melee weapons, one type for "dual-wieldable" punch-strength melee weapons, differences such as "sword" or "hatchet" or "claws" are cosmetic for sake of simplicity
All target affecting special effects would be standardized (no die rolling there), and represented with a token that notes the exact magnitude of the effect.
I don't feel lasers work as cluster weapons. A pulse laser pulsing is fast enough it cannot practically function as a cluster weapon. Likewise, a beam laser has short enough beam it doesn't spread across multiple armor locations and thus does not function as a cluster weapon.
"Gatling lasers" are just plain silly, only fit for Fallout.
While i currently have only one type of lasers, i am willing to listed to additional ideas if this new laser type brings something unique and interesting to play.
One idea i have is for Blazer-like "double-tap laser" (one-size only probably), that works like lasers except upon firing, it can immediately attempt another attack with same modifiers and guaranteed same hit location but with massive heat cost. Might need declaring beforehand though, otherwise it would too good. Effectively we'd be looking something like 2x damage for 3 to 4x heat cost, but since it is the same hit location... This might end up being experimental weapon though, not a standard one.
Overall, my aim is sorta-introductory-level-like/Star League-like set of weapons but with additional options thrown into mix, everything balanced reasonably.
Ranges are probably close to introductory level but with heavier 'Mechs possessing higher mobility being more common. Maximum range should be about 25 hexes and that should be rare, this is for sake of keeping playing area within reasonable limits for standard games.
Damage values are completely in the air at the moment. Thinking of things being stronger than BT's introductory level though, in order to speed up game resolution a bit, plus technically these weapons are descendants of Clan tech after all. Alternatively "official" 'Mech design is to keep them well under armor cap, with anything maxing armor out being rare and paying for it.
Do note there will electronic equipment like ECM or active probe systems, construction materials and options, and new armor types including new types of modular armor. The only solid here is that all 'Mechs sport "single heat sinks" (actually compacted DHS but heat scale adjusted), and "double heat sinks"
that cannot be fit into engine.
Also note that some things might not really make sense... but then again neither do many things in classic BattleTech. Just smile and nod.