Author Topic: Beam Fire Controls  (Read 36067 times)

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Offline Mel Vixen (OP)

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Beam Fire Controls
« on: April 28, 2013, 05:34:12 AM »
Quote
38cm C4 Advanced Spinal Ultraviolet Laser
Damage Output 38     Rate of Fire: 50 seconds     Range Modifier: 4
Max Range 1,520,000 km     Laser Size: 12 HS    Laser HTK: 6
Power Requirement: 38    Power Recharge per 5 Secs: 4
Cost: 98    Crew: 36
Spinal Weapon Only
Materials Required: 19.6x Duranium  19.6x Boronide  58.8x Corundium
Development Cost for Project: 980RP

As it seems we also get some range-enhancement with those, hopefully with an appropriate range-increase for the firecontrols. hehe also with caronades a spinal mount could be fun. More the 200 points of point blanck damage sounds terrific.
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Offline Polestar

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Beam Fire Controls
« Reply #1 on: April 28, 2013, 06:22:31 PM »
As it seems we also get some range-enhancement with those, hopefully with an appropriate range-increase for the firecontrols. hehe also with caronades a spinal mount could be fun. More the 200 points of point blanck damage sounds terrific.
It's worth us more obviously pointing out that, *without* such a follow-up change, Spinal Mounts will be gimped compared to our expectations. Sorry to lower the tone, but better to find and fix this now than finding out after the next release. For great COOLNESS.
 

Offline Steve Walmsley

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Beam Fire Controls
« Reply #2 on: April 28, 2013, 07:03:42 PM »
As it seems we also get some range-enhancement with those, hopefully with an appropriate range-increase for the firecontrols. hehe also with caronades a spinal mount could be fun. More the 200 points of point blanck damage sounds terrific.

Some of the existing lasers have huge ranges. However, you can't target them beyond a max of 1.5m kilometers (primarily because of the light-speed issue).

Steve
 

Offline Bremen

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Beam Fire Controls
« Reply #3 on: April 28, 2013, 11:16:30 PM »
Some of the existing lasers have huge ranges. However, you can't target them beyond a max of 1.5m kilometers (primarily because of the light-speed issue).

Steve

The light speed limit is understandable; however a range bonus within that limit might be a good thing to soften the rather hard line where you can be destroyed without getting a chance to fire a shot.

I mean, yeah, you can fire at 1.5m km if you have completely maxed out tech, but how many people get that far? If spinal weapons had a bonus to max range (capped at 1.5m km) it would fuzzy the line a bit.
« Last Edit: April 28, 2013, 11:22:44 PM by Bremen »
 

Offline bean

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Beam Fire Controls
« Reply #4 on: April 29, 2013, 02:55:47 PM »
The light speed limit is understandable; however a range bonus within that limit might be a good thing to soften the rather hard line where you can be destroyed without getting a chance to fire a shot.

I mean, yeah, you can fire at 1.5m km if you have completely maxed out tech, but how many people get that far? If spinal weapons had a bonus to max range (capped at 1.5m km) it would fuzzy the line a bit.
The problem is that the max range comes from the fire control, not the weapon itself.  One way to somewhat solve the problem is to make the tradeoff between range and speed somewhat more explicit.  Create a tech that lets you build special long-range fire controls.  When it's on, the fc you build has, oh, 50% more range and 25% of the tracking speed.  You could even do multiple levels, with greater range boosts and tracking losses.
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Offline Conscript Gary

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Beam Fire Controls
« Reply #5 on: April 29, 2013, 06:02:27 PM »
Yeah, a higher theoretical weapon range just translates into higher practical damage for lasers, the fire control is the real limiting factor
 

Offline Bremen

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« Reply #6 on: April 30, 2013, 12:30:58 AM »
Yeah, a higher theoretical weapon range just translates into higher practical damage for lasers, the fire control is the real limiting factor

That's why I'm suggesting they get a bonus to the max range of the fire control.
 

Offline TheDeadlyShoe

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Beam Fire Controls
« Reply #7 on: April 30, 2013, 02:36:28 AM »
The max range of fire controls is based on the 5s * Speed of Light limit ;)
 

Offline Bremen

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Beam Fire Controls
« Reply #8 on: April 30, 2013, 03:28:59 AM »
The max range of fire controls is based on the 5s * Speed of Light limit ;)

Only at maximum tech.
 

Offline Erik L

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Beam Fire Controls
« Reply #9 on: April 30, 2013, 03:29:43 AM »
Only at maximum tech.

That would be the "ultimate" maximum range. :)

Offline sloanjh

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Beam Fire Controls
« Reply #10 on: April 30, 2013, 08:31:01 AM »
The max range of fire controls is based on the 5s * Speed of Light limit ;)

As in: "It ain't likely to change" :)

John
 

Offline bean

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Beam Fire Controls
« Reply #11 on: April 30, 2013, 09:28:45 AM »
The max range of fire controls is based on the 5s * Speed of Light limit ;)
That's why I suggested implementing a tradeoff between range and tracking speed.  If the target is moving slower, you should be able to hit it further away.
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Offline Erik L

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Beam Fire Controls
« Reply #12 on: April 30, 2013, 11:22:59 AM »
That's why I suggested implementing a tradeoff between range and tracking speed.  If the target is moving slower, you should be able to hit it further away.

But you can't. Then the weapon would be FTL.

Offline xeryon

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Beam Fire Controls
« Reply #13 on: April 30, 2013, 11:35:40 AM »
I understand what he's asking for and can see why there is confusion here.  The max range of a laser doesn't have anything to do with firecontrols, laser size or the speed of your target.  The max range is literally: if I hit fire how far can the beam go in 5 seconds?  It's a game mechanics/physics limit.  Unless Steve would want to make lasers be a weapon that can track across more than one time increment this will always be a hard limit.  Even if he did change it the setup becomes far more complicated because you are now firing a weapon with a fixed trajectory and a pause in the action with the payload in mid-transit.  It would make it very easy for a watchful player to manually dodge the incoming fire with a change in course.
 

Offline chrislocke2000

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Beam Fire Controls
« Reply #14 on: April 30, 2013, 11:56:03 AM »
I think the thing to change on fire controls in order to make better use of the max range is altering the rate at which accuracey reduces. This would be in exchange for possibly further increased size (not a huge fan of this trade off) or substantially increased complexity in terms of research and build cost. This would then give a better chance of actually hitting something at that range and hence being able to utilise it without actually increasing the overall range of the weapons.
« Last Edit: April 30, 2013, 11:57:54 AM by chrislocke2000 »