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Post by deltav on Jan 22, 2017 21:16:11 GMT
Ingame we have many weapon types.
1. Lasers 2. Coilguns 3. Railguns 4. Cannons 5. Missiles 6. Drones
Of the directly ship mounted weapons, Lasers, Coilguns, Railguns and Cannons...
1. What do you think is the most versatile overall weapon? 2. What is the best use of each weapon for cost?
My initial opinions pros and cons.
Lasers Pros: 1# in Accuracy and Distance: Since Lasers move at lightspeed, accuracy is only limited by sensors and targeting systems, not the weapon itself. Infinite Ammo: As long as power is available, the weapon cannot run out of ammo. Almost infinitely Powerful: Limits on weapon power is the power supplied to it and design, nothing else. Cons: Damage is Based on Heat: Reflective or heat resistant armor can negate it more easily than kinetic force can be negated. Damage is Based on Distance: Damage drops off at range unlike kinetic weapons. Needs most power of these types: Needs the most power of any weapon system here, which means larger radiators and more nuclear power plants.
Cannons Pros: Cheapest and least power intensive weapons system: Materials are cheap and the power needs are low. Cons: Lowest speed and therefore worse accuracy and distance of any weapons here. Most vulnerable to weapons fire due to the propellent.
Any thoughts?
With mods what is the best use of each ship mounted weapon type?
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Post by deltav on Jan 22, 2017 21:26:15 GMT
Here's a coilgun design I've been fooling around with. It is able to engage even drone and missile size targets at 70 km + Advantages over the stock lasers... It's about the same price as the stock 100MW laser. It uses only 60MW instead of 100. It can kill stock capital ships at 500 km something none of the stock lasers can. What about the modded designs? All things being equal, what are the best uses of each weapon type? Attachments:
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Post by deltav on Jan 22, 2017 21:57:08 GMT
Got the price down to 1.3 Mc at the cost of Turret angle and speed. At the long ranges involved shouldn't' matter much Attachments:
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Post by argonbalt on Jan 22, 2017 22:26:03 GMT
The thing is even with all the components of a functioning laser system, and it's huge radiators and power supply needed, it still pretty much holds three huge advantages over conventional weapons and electric ballistic systems:
1: Extreme range, unsurpassable by coil/rail/cannon designs, this makes basic physical sense, you will never be able to move a mass of any kind as far and as fast as a massless wave(or particle) of energy. With enough power x ray and gamma ray weapons would be even more long ranged, alternatively particle cannons are equally dangerous.
2: Instant impact, no time delay no wasted shots, as soon as it hits it hits. Even with armour combinations there is nothing that can indefinitely or exponentially stop enough laser energy. This combined with the aforementioned ranges mean that Lasers will always be the first thing to fire if you want a tactical advantage.
3: No ammunition stores, as long as you have power and are not over heating your lasers will out shoot any ballistic systems precisely because their power.
Don't get me wrong, coil rail and gun systems still have very respectable niches, guns are great for cheap simple drones, railguns are good for anti drone and light anti missile work, and coilguns are an excellent secondary ship weapon. But when a single laser drone can melt more ships drones and missiles faster than any cannons the answer seems pretty obvious.
Not to mention that if we had proper laser targeting we would be able to melt the bullets of enemy drones and ships as well.
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Post by The Astronomer on Jan 22, 2017 23:10:50 GMT
My 30 MW laser has about 3 TW/m2 intensity at 1 km. It can be used to destroy enemy laser with 1 cm-thick aramid fiber armor 500 km away with ease. Even though, there are still railguns and decoys in case of missiles, something extremely troublesome for lasers to mess with.
Oh, and it weights just a bit over four tons!
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Post by newageofpower on Jan 23, 2017 0:50:33 GMT
Good armor makes Lasers almost useless ship to ship just using good heat absorbing armor. This is the same guy that got trashed a few weeks back, right? *checks posting history* yeeppp Did you try a fleet of ships with your gun vs a fleet of ships with JasonVance lasers? No? Stop wasting our time.
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Post by deltav on Jan 23, 2017 3:54:20 GMT
The thing is even with all the components of a functioning laser system, and it's huge radiators and power supply needed, it still pretty much holds three huge advantages over conventional weapons and electric ballistic systems: 1: Extreme range, unsurpassable by coil/rail/cannon designs, this makes basic physical sense, you will never be able to move a mass of any kind as far and as fast as a massless wave(or particle) of energy. With enough power x ray and gamma ray weapons would be even more long ranged, alternatively particle cannons are equally dangerous. 2: Instant impact, no time delay no wasted shots, as soon as it hits it hits. Even with armour combinations there is nothing that can indefinitely or exponentially stop enough laser energy. This combined with the aforementioned ranges mean that Lasers will always be the first thing to fire if you want a tactical advantage. 3: No ammunition stores, as long as you have power and are not over heating your lasers will out shoot any ballistic systems precisely because their power. Don't get me wrong, coil rail and gun systems still have very respectable niches, guns are great for cheap simple drones, railguns are good for anti drone and light anti missile work, and coilguns are an excellent secondary ship weapon. But when a single laser drone can melt more ships drones and missiles faster than any cannons the answer seems pretty obvious. Not to mention that if we had proper laser targeting we would be able to melt the bullets of enemy drones and ships as well. Would love some pointers on cheap and good laser designs. Don't even know where to start. Can you show me a laser design that is powerful without needing the huge radiators and reactors? Thanks for the help. PS. The fact that lasers can out surpass coilguns/ railguns for range and power is yet to be determined. That is in fact the whole point of this post. Instead of posting theory, let's see some screenshots. You can blur out the details of the weapon settings if you want to keep the details of the design secret.
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Post by deltav on Jan 23, 2017 4:04:59 GMT
My 30 MW laser has about 3 TW/m2 intensity at 1 km. It can be used to destroy enemy laser with 1 cm-thick aramid fiber armor 500 km away with ease. Even though, there are still railguns and decoys in case of missiles, something extremely troublesome for lasers to mess with. Oh, and it weights just a bit over four tons! Where can I find some help on building laser designs like this?
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Post by deltav on Jan 23, 2017 4:09:00 GMT
I see a lot of guys on this thread love lasers. Great!
If you disagree with something I've written here, post some specs of your laser designs with screenshots.
If you want to keep your designs secret for some reason, it's easy to blur out the settings in paint while keeping the very important POWER USE, COST, and DAMAGE at various distances for us to verify.
Merely stating stats without any screenshots is just a claim that no one can verify. Screenshots are it.
For some of the negative/ troll types who have posted....
This isn't a anti-laser post. The point of this is to sound off and to share.
Remember that most people on pages like are lurkers. For everyone that comments or makes a post, many many others just read without commenting.
If you disagree, sound off and leave it at that. No point in personal attacks. Stick to science and the subject which is what this page is all about. After all we don't know each other and will probably never meet. Let's stick to the subject.
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Post by The Astronomer on Jan 23, 2017 5:01:20 GMT
My 30 MW laser has about 3 TW/m2 intensity at 1 km. It can be used to destroy enemy laser with 1 cm-thick aramid fiber armor 500 km away with ease. Even though, there are still railguns and decoys in case of missiles, something extremely troublesome for lasers to mess with. Oh, and it weights just a bit over four tons! Where can I find some help on building laser designs like this? Just use two frequency doubler and large aperture.
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Post by deltav on Jan 23, 2017 5:18:16 GMT
Where can I find some help on building laser designs like this? Just use two frequency doubler and large aperture. Are the two frequency doublers identical or no? Just trying to get on the right track. How to find the sweet spots?
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Post by The Astronomer on Jan 23, 2017 5:21:33 GMT
Just use two frequency doubler and large aperture. Are the two frequency doublers identical or no? Just trying to get on the right track. How to find the sweet spots? Edit until their efficiencies are 100%.
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Post by apophys on Jan 23, 2017 5:41:08 GMT
deltav - Since you asked, here's a 100MW laser I've been testing with. Just add a 100MW reactor, and radiators. 110 of these got jasonvance 's target burned down in about 11 minutes. Stock ships stand no chance whatsoever. You can put it in your game to verify these statistics: 20.3 MW/m 2 intensity at 1000 km (enough to melt anything rapidly) spot size about 52 cm wide (~0.21 m 2 area) at 1000 km mass 340 kg cost 7.36 kc LaserModule 100 MW Nd:YAG speedtest laser UsesCustomName true ArcLamp GasComposition Krypton EnvelopeComposition Fused Quartz PowerSupplied_W 1e+008 Radius_m 0.01 CavityWallComposition Silver CavityCoolantComposition Hydrogen CavitySemimajorAxis_m 0.2 CavitySemiminorAxis_m 0.19 GainMedium Nd:YAG OpticalNodes 3000000 LasingRodRadius_m 0.019 Mirror Composition Silver OutputCoupler Composition Fused Quartz CoolantTurbopump Composition Boron PumpRadius_m 0.35 RotationalSpeed_RPM 200 CoolantInletTemperature_K 1100 FrequencyDoubler NonlinearOptic Composition Silver Gallium Selenide OpticLength_m 0.018 OpticRadius_m 0.008 SecondFrequencyDoubler NonlinearOptic Composition Silver Gallium Selenide OpticLength_m 0.018 OpticRadius_m 0.0085 ApertureRadius_m 2.06 FocusingMirror Composition Aluminum Turret InnerRadius_m 4.37 ArmorComposition Graphite Aerogel ArmorThickness_m 0.0001 MomentumWheels Composition Lithium RotationalSpeed_RPM 120 EngagementRange_km 1000 TargetsShips true TargetsShots true
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Post by deltav on Jan 23, 2017 5:56:54 GMT
deltav - Since you asked, here's a 100MW laser I've been testing with. Just add a 100MW reactor, and radiators. 110 of these got jasonvance 's target burned down in about 11 minutes. Stock ships stand no chance whatsoever. You can put it in your game to verify these statistics: 20.3 MW/m 2 intensity at 1000 km (enough to melt anything rapidly) spot size about 26 cm wide (~0.21 m 2 area) at 1000 km mass 340 kg cost 7.36 kc LaserModule 100 MW Nd:YAG speedtest laser UsesCustomName true ArcLamp GasComposition Krypton EnvelopeComposition Fused Quartz PowerSupplied_W 1e+008 Radius_m 0.01 CavityWallComposition Silver CavityCoolantComposition Hydrogen CavitySemimajorAxis_m 0.2 CavitySemiminorAxis_m 0.19 GainMedium Nd:YAG OpticalNodes 3000000 LasingRodRadius_m 0.019 Mirror Composition Silver OutputCoupler Composition Fused Quartz CoolantTurbopump Composition Boron PumpRadius_m 0.35 RotationalSpeed_RPM 200 CoolantInletTemperature_K 1100 FrequencyDoubler NonlinearOptic Composition Silver Gallium Selenide OpticLength_m 0.018 OpticRadius_m 0.008 SecondFrequencyDoubler NonlinearOptic Composition Silver Gallium Selenide OpticLength_m 0.018 OpticRadius_m 0.0085 ApertureRadius_m 2.06 FocusingMirror Composition Aluminum Turret InnerRadius_m 4.37 ArmorComposition Graphite Aerogel ArmorThickness_m 0.0001 MomentumWheels Composition Lithium RotationalSpeed_RPM 120 EngagementRange_km 1000 TargetsShips true TargetsShots true
Awesome Thanks. Just unlocked module design and this helps alot figuring out how it works.
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Post by caiaphas on Jan 23, 2017 6:11:29 GMT
Uh, guys? Anyone know what happened to the 1.0.8 lasers thread? I can't seem to find it anywhere.
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