Balance Point: beam laser vs Pulse Laser

[Nerhesi]

Beam Laser - 1D damage, +4 to hit, 4 power, medium range, TL 10!

Pulse Laser - 2D damage, +2 to hit, 4 power, long range, TL 9!


I would normally say drop power cost, but obviously the idea is the pulse laser "packages" the power into pulses rather than a beam. But perhaps TL can be switched or so?

Other than cost.. which is really minor (0.5 vs 1.0), especially when considering they'll be used on smaller ships. Larger ships, wont care as they'll be on military budgets.

The only benefit I can see is if:

a) You apply their to-hit bonus on point defense
b) Missiles are correctly treated as personal sized targets, and therefore get a -4 to be hit or whatever

 

[MongooseMatt]

I think I am kinda okay on the current differences. Anyone else want to weigh in?

 

[phavoc]

It seems a reasonable difference. Today we drop 250lb precision bombs when we used to drop 500lb semi-precision bombs. Lower tech levels have often made up for accuracy with more oomph. Nukes follow the same logic.

 

[Nerhesi]

But the lower tech level is the better weapon actually here The pulse laser is 1 TL lower, double damage, same power, longer range

Again - minor issue as it's on the low end of weaponry, but just something I noticed.

 

[phavoc]

The beam laser has a +4 to hit. Being able to hit is a great advantage.

 

[Nerhesi]

Yes - you are correct. Dont think it is enough to make up for the thousands of kilometers more range and almost double damage - but honestly. This is a minor thing

 

[Chas]

The beam laser has a +4 to hit. Being able to hit is a great advantage.

Effect also counts on damage

 

[Nerhesi]

The beam laser has a +4 to hit. Being able to hit is a great advantage.

Effect also counts on damage

Yup! 1d6+4 vs 2d6+2. Almost double

Now if we make that hit-bonus apply on point defense too... hello useful beam lasers

 

[Chas]

The beam laser has a +4 to hit. Being able to hit is a great advantage.

Effect also counts on damage

Yup! 1d6+4 vs 2d6+2. Almost double

Now if we make that hit-bonus apply on point defense too... hello useful beam lasers

That bonus on point defense would make game logical sense also. Able to wave a beam about has much more chance of hitting the moving object than pulses of stuff...

 

[phavoc]

That bonus on point defense would make game logical sense also. Able to wave a beam about has much more chance of hitting the moving object than pulses of stuff...

Personally I like the idea that pulse lasers make for better point defense because of the ability to 'pulse'. So instead of pumping everything out in a single burst it fires man rapid burst that effectively saturate the area where the target is. Kind of like a flak burst. It doesn't take a lot of energy to destroy a missile, thus the capacitors can toss out a great many bursts that an evading missile is hopefully going to run into. If you restricted point defense to only pulse lasers you would get a more defined decision tree. Maybe it would be a simple software/mechanical changeover so you have to determine 1 TURN ahead if your laser fires in offensive or defensive mode - that would make ship combat more interesting with having to decide if you need to reserve it for defense or hammer him on offense.

Having a weapon that is more accurate and less damaging has it's precedents. And that's why I can see the reason to have a difference between beam and pulse. It's a small variation, but then again many players treat a laser as a laser as a laser (like missiles are missiles are missiles).

You could, too, introduce the concept of a Heavy beam laser here too, as a natural progression of laser technology. I don't see the need to introduce a heavy of both types, as tech would have tried to integrate the best features of each into the same laser. At TL12 it's early enough that you could add long range into the mix as well. And since it's a beam laser, more ouchy, but no defensive capability, thus pulse lasers still have their place.

Advanced Beam Laser - 2D damage, +4 to hit, 10 power, medium range, TL 12

And even scaling up into a barbette: Heavy Laser - 2D(+4) damage, +2 to hit, 15 power, medium range, TL 11. The addition of a guarantee of dmg points regardless of your roll would encourage players to seriously look at them.

Yay! More defined decisions!