Lasers

Description

Lasers are a type of beam weapon. They have a maximum range of

 Base Damage * Range Modifier * 10000km

Their rate of fire is

 Base Damage / Capacitor Recharge Rate * 5s

While the theoretical maximum range far exceeds 1.5m km, no Beam Fire Control is able to handle ranges beyond this limit. Longer laser ranges still lead to increased damage across their effective range. Lasers can be mounted in turrets

Usage

Lasers have good damage and good range. While they don't have any specialty like other beam weapons, they have no weakness and can be used for every purpose. Small turreted lasers provide good long range beam point defense, while large lasers excel at penetrating armor, and inflicting Shock Damage. Spinal lasers allow the construction of even larger weapons, although restricted to one per ship.

Damage Profile

Example Strength-3 hit

-	-	x	-	-	-	-	-	-
-	-	x	-	-	-	-	-	-
-	-	x	-	-	-	-	-	-
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Components

Laser Focal Size

Laser Focal Size determines how large the laser focal size (or calibre). Larger laser cause more damage, has higher base range, but requires more power, which means it'll fire slower unless your charge tech keeps up.

Laser Focal Size

Focal Size	10cm	12cm	15cm	20cm	25cm	30cm	35cm	40cm	50cm	60cm	70cm	80cm
Size (HS)	3	4	4	6	8	9	11	12	16	19	22	25
Base Damage	3	4	6	10	16	24	32	42	65	94	128	168
RP cost	1,000	2,000	4,000	8,000	15,000	30,000	60,000	125,000	250,000	500,000	1,000,000	2,000,000

Laser Wavelength

Laser Wavelength modifies the range, with longer wavelength lasers having greater range.

Laser Wavelengths

Wavelength	Infrared	Visible Light	Near Ultraviolet	Ultraviolet	Far Ultraviolet	Soft X-Ray	X-Ray	Far X-Ray	Extreme X-Ray Laser	Near Gamma Ray	Gamma Ray	Far Gamma Ray
Range Modifier	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
RP cost	1,000	2,000	4,000	8,000	15,000	30,000	60,000	125,000	250,000	500,000	1,000,000	2,000,000

Capacitor Recharge Rate

Capacitor Recharge Rate determines how fast the laser's power can be recharged and therefore determines its rate of fire.

Capacitor Recharge Rate

Recharge Rate	1	2	3	4	5	6	8	10	12	16	20	25
RP cost	1,000	2,000	4,000	8,000	15,000	30,000	60,000	125,000	250,000	500,000	1,000,000	2,000,000

Reduced Size Lasers

Reduced Size Laser technology, which we won't be examining in this tutorial, creates more compact lasers that have slower rates of fire.

Reduced Size Laser

Reduction	1	0.75	0.5
Recharge Multiplier	1	4	20
RP cost	-	5000	15,000

Spinal Mount

Spinal Mount

Reduction	Regular	Spinal Mount	Advanced Spinal
Focal Size	1	1.25	1.5
RP cost	-	5,000	20,000