Reduced Size Lasers

[Thiosk (OP)]

Reduced size lasers seem to get a lot less attention, compared to their missile launcher counterparts.  I did a little analysis of why.  The immediate, obvious reason for this is the ratio of range to reload-- a lot of lasers can cut things in half.  I'm currently designing a line of beam armed armored facs, making them a necessity, but I started wondering if there was any benefit to having them on main line ships.  

The negatives certainly add up.  

Consider a 50 cm Far X-ray laser with a level 10 capacitor.  These do 64 pts of damage at optimal range, go off every 35 seconds, and weigh 16 HS.  800 tons.  The antimatter power plants to run these suckers don't come cheap, either-- adding about another 500 tons.

The reduced size version (i have only found half-size lasers) weighs 400 tons, requires 1/20 the power plant needed for further reduction, but in only shoots once every seven minutes.

Standard lasers can thus fire twelve times before the reduced size lasers can fire again!  Full size lasers thus have a 6:1 damage ratio under these conditions.  

There might be a reason to have them still, though; heres a lovely dreadnought that can demolish the shields of a certain form of alien mothership in a single blast:

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Goes 19 Times in Seven Minutes! class Cruiser    61,500 tons     7481 Crew     34638.3 BP      TCS 1230  TH 19680  EM 14400
16000 km/s     Armour 12-138     Shields 480-360     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 62     PPV 384
Maint Life 3.37 Years     MSP 14785    AFR 720%    IFR 10%    1YR 1975    5YR 29618    Max Repair 675 MSP

Solid Core Anti-matter Drive Military Supercharged E5.6 (82)    Power 240    Fuel Use 56%    Signature 240    Armour 0    Exp 16%
Fuel Capacity 7,100,000 Litres    Range 371.1 billion km   (268 days at full power)
Omicron R360/24 Shields (80)   Total Fuel Cost  1,920 Litres per day

50cm C10 Far X-Ray Laser (24)    Range 600,000km     TS: 16000 km/s     Power 64-10     RM 8    ROF 35        64 64 64 64 64 64 64 64 56 51
LR Beam FC S06 300-15000 (4)    Max Range: 600,000 km   TS: 15000 km/s     98 97 95 93 92 90 88 87 85 83
Solid-core Anti-matter Power Plant Technology PB-1 (8)     Total Power Output 256    Armour 0    Exp 5%

ECCM-3 (4)         ECM 50

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

Compare that to this little guy, able to accomplish the same feat:

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Less Than Seven Seconds of Heaven    37,000 tons     3292 Crew     20579.5 BP      TCS 740  TH 12480  EM 7200
16864 km/s     Armour 12-98     Shields 240-360     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 40     PPV 192
Maint Life 3.46 Years     MSP 6953    AFR 547%    IFR 7.6%    1YR 886    5YR 13288    Max Repair 675 MSP

Solid Core Anti-matter Drive Military Supercharged E5.6 (52)    Power 240    Fuel Use 56%    Signature 240    Armour 0    Exp 16%
Fuel Capacity 4,700,000 Litres    Range 408.3 billion km   (280 days at full power)
Omicron R360/24 Shields (40)   Total Fuel Cost  960 Litres per day

50cm C0.5 Far X-Ray Laser (24)    Range 600,000km     TS: 16864 km/s     Power 64-0.5     RM 8    ROF 640        64 64 64 64 64 64 64 64 56 51
LR Beam FC S06 300-15000 (4)    Max Range: 600,000 km   TS: 15000 km/s     98 97 95 93 92 90 88 87 85 83
Solid-core Anti-matter Power Plant Technology PB-1 (1)     Total Power Output 16    Armour 0    Exp 5%

ECCM-3 (4)         ECM 50

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes


I shrunk the shields a bit to reflect the lower tonnage, but otherwise it has the same capability:  once every seven minutes.  I still don't think the benefits add up.  

But then I got thinking: is there a way to do it cheaper?

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Thumper class Cruiser    850 tons     81 Crew     691.6 BP      TCS 17  TH 360  EM 0
28235 km/s     Armour 3-7     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 8
Maint Life 2.25 Years     MSP 127    AFR 23%    IFR 0.3%    1YR 34    5YR 509    Max Repair 320 MSP

GB Solid Core Anti-matter Drive E56 (FAC) (1)    Power 480    Fuel Use 560%    Signature 360    Armour 0    Exp 48%
Fuel Capacity 30,000 Litres    Range 11.3 billion km   (4 days at full power)

50cm C0.5 Far X-Ray Laser (1)    Range 150,000km     TS: 28235 km/s     Power 64-0.5     RM 8    ROF 640        64 64 64 64 64 64 64 64 56 51
FAC Beam Fire Control S01.5 75-15000 (1)    Max Range: 150,000 km   TS: 15000 km/s     93 87 80 73 67 60 53 47 40 33
Tiny Antimatter Power Plant PB-1 (1)     Total Power Output 1.6    Armour 0    Exp 5%

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes


24 of them to knock out the shields in one blast, although then they have to get away-- they're done.  24 of them cost 16,000 BP, about half of the big dreadnought.

The biggest advantage is the lack of necessity for logistic support, other than a carrier-- each of them packs a size 64 wallop.  Even though they need 640 seconds to charge back up, they can actually zip in and out of combat a number of times since they don't need to fly back to the carrier.  

That is, if they survive closing to range.

[Panopticon]

Well, against a certain NPR, they would be certain to close to range, anyone else though yeah they may have difficulty, but if that person isn't shielded you really only need one or two to get close.

[Brian Neumann]

There is another NPR race which this would be usefull against.  If you want to turret large caliber lasers so they have a good tracking speed, but only need to fire every few minutes then you can work a comprimise out.  You probably won't be able to mount 50cm lasers for this, but depending on your recharge rate a 30-40cm laser would probably have the recharge time needed.  I am refering to the Invader's race plasma torpedo's which can be both have avery large warhead (with a matching armor) and which have cycle times in the 3-5 minute range.  The main advantage here is that you are suing these lasers in a point defense roll where numbers of weapons are as important as the damage that they are doing.  The smaller size more than makes up for the slower fire rate, as long as the fire rate matches the cycle time of the incomming weapons.

Brian

[Nathan_]

Don't forget fighters:

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A-101C Hawk class Fighter    262 tons     8 Crew     58.1 BP      TCS 5.24  TH 27.5  EM 0
10496 km/s     Armour 1-3     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 2.64
Maint Life 7.43 Years     MSP 14    AFR 5%    IFR 0.1%    1YR 0    5YR 7    Max Repair 18 MSP

FTR Magneto-plasma FE780 (1)    Power 55.2    Fuel Use 7800%    Signature 27.6    Armour 0    Exp 60%
Fuel Capacity 20,000 Litres    Range 1.8 billion km   (46 hours at full power)

Single 10cm C1 Near Ultraviolet Laser Turret (1x1)    Range 32,000km     TS: 16000 km/s     Power 3-1     RM 3    ROF 15        3 3 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Fire Control S00.5 16-4000 (FTR) (1)    Max Range: 32,000 km   TS: 16000 km/s     69 37 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
SFR P1.14 S0.2 (1)     Total Power Output 1.14    Armour 0    Exp 4%

This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and maintenance purposes


The turret is 2.64 HS and is built on a 75% size 10CM C4 laser.

[DFDelta]

I use reduced size lasers on defensive satellites on a regular basis. 

Even with low-medium tech levels you can clobber something together that consists of a small reactor, a relatively big laser on a 8000km/s turret and a FC, all while staying under 500t and with maintenance lives above 20 years. 
They are dirt cheap and can be dropped en masse on jump points, dealing massive damage to anyone who comes trough uninvited. 
If keep them updated you can make each generation smaller, and with longer lives, while at the same time greatly buffing their range and accuracy.

Downside is that you have to build them via shipyard, so they take long to build. 


I usually have several task-groups consisting of 10 of them + one sensor satellite flying around on every jump point in important systems, and every world that happens to have the necessary resources to produce them gets a shipyard that's tooled for them. 
Also my fleets often have carrier ships with them that carry 10 of those plus one sensor satellite into battle, if I have to retreat they drop them on the other side of a JP, hoping that any enemies that follow me trough get damaged enough by the 20-30 20+cm lasers that I have a chance to escape. 

So far I am very happy with them, and I would never underestimate them. 

[HaliRyan]

I use reduced size lasers on defensive satellites on a regular basis. 

Even with low-medium tech levels you can clobber something together that consists of a small reactor, a relatively big laser on a 8000km/s turret and a FC, all while staying under 500t and with maintenance lives above 20 years. 
They are dirt cheap and can be dropped en masse on jump points, dealing massive damage to anyone who comes trough uninvited. 

I thought about doing almost that exact thing in one of my games, but I figured that it'd be a PITA to get the TF training up to snuff with potentially hundreds of them through my systems, and without it the enemy would just jump through and be out of range before they could fire. I ended up using missiles instead so that I could just ignore the delay thanks to the giant range. So I'm curious, how did you deal with that issue?

[DFDelta]

Having the satellites split into several task groups and spread out helps.
Even if the enemy comes out of transit and immediately starts moving it wil still be in range of at least one group once they understood their orders to open fire.  With good enough range on the lasers you can make the rings of satellites even wider, allowing your sats to catch even faster enemies.

Going trough the hassle to train them might make that unnecessary, but either way is a lot of micromanagement.
(but then again, what isn't? )