Good Beam Parasites

[SwordLord10 (OP)]

I would like to know what your designs for good spinal laser parasites are.  If you could include the design for the carrier as well, that'd be great.  Preferred tech range:Early-mid

[Rich.h]

Not too sure if there is such a thing as a "good spinal parasite", the problem I see coming from using a spinal laser. Most parasites have shortened lifespans over larger craft simply as even if they move fast a well equipped enemy will still be hitting them now and again, add to that the fact they tend to be lightly armoured and lacking shields due to space means they can be somewhat fragile. As such you really need as high a DPS as you can manage for them, but a spinal mount will likely have less DPS for two reasons. First would be that being a spinal mount it fires far slowly than standard, and then take into account the chance of missing with those fewer shots per minute.

At mid-late tech levels I would say this becomes possible to do as the recharge rates and reactor boots become large enough so that you can ensure a 5 second fire rate, otherwise you need to look at FAC around the 900-1000 ton range which means more engines and as such get seen (and targeted) at ranges greater than a fighter and so they loose the advantage of surprise. However it is a nice idea I have no considered before and may very well have a toy around with some FAC spinal designs for punching big holes in smaller craft at a distance.

[Vandermeer]

As such you really need as high a DPS as you can manage for them, but a spinal mount will likely have less DPS for two reasons. First would be that being a spinal mount it fires far slowly than standard, and then take into account the chance of missing with those fewer shots per minute.

DPS on spinal is exactly identical to non-spinal.(short of some rounding maybe) What increases is the statistical variable of Variance, so your damage output is more susceptible to luck and chaos as a shot of many separated units would do.
Keep in mind however that you get penetration value in trade, so I would net them to be slightly better in matters of armament.


The main counter for spinal parasites is though that you lose PD capacity. Firstly, beam fighters are more for PD, finisher, and civil hunt roles anyway. In each of these, strong penetrating alpha damage does nothing, and rate of fire is either necessary or just more comfortable.
When you really want a beam attacking fighter however, you'd still want it to be a PD one, because when you approach an enemy, often enough missiles will come your way, and you are simply better at shooting them down with fast firing. The spinal only adds penetration, not damage performance, so I think it is not really worth gaining this little advantage, and vastly sacrificing the useful role as potential PD-aid in trade.

...Not to mention the stealth is much worse too.

[SwordLord10 (OP)]

DPS on spinal is exactly identical to non-spinal. (short of some rounding maybe) What increases is the statistical variable of Variance, so your damage output is more susceptible to luck and chaos as a shot of many separated units would do.
Keep in mind however that you get penetration value in trade, so I would net them to be slightly better in matters of armament.


The main counter for spinal parasites is though that you lose PD capacity.  Firstly, beam fighters are more for PD, finisher, and civil hunt roles anyway.  In each of these, strong penetrating alpha damage does nothing, and rate of fire is either necessary or just more comfortable.
When you really want a beam attacking fighter however, you'd still want it to be a PD one, because when you approach an enemy, often enough missiles will come your way, and you are simply better at shooting them down with fast firing.  The spinal only adds penetration, not damage performance, so I think it is not really worth gaining this little advantage, and vastly sacrificing the useful role as potential PD-aid in trade.

. . . Not to mention the stealth is much worse too.

Well, on paper, spinal only increases penetration, but, last time I checked, it also allowed you to fit 2x larger lasers on the ships in question.

[bean]

Raw DPS isn't the value you need to care about.  DPS/HS is.  Neglecting range-based fall-off (and parasites are not good candidates for big, expensive fire control systems anyway), this means you need to go for the biggest system you can recharge in 5 seconds.  Damage/HS goes up with bigger lasers, and if you can get them to recharge in 5 seconds, they'll provide the best value.  Going to a weapon that cannot be recharged in 5 seconds will never improve your DPS/HS.
This does start to break down a bit when you get to high levels.  For instance, at capacitor rate 12, you can build 0.75x 10 cm lasers with a 5-second recharge, which moves the laser from 1 DPS/HS (3/3) to 1.5 DPS/HS (3/2), which, while slightly lower than a 20 cm laser at the same tech, is much smaller and more suitable for parasite use.