Another possible set of beam weps (all have zero targeting, and Raven-thin bolts). These have MUCH higher damage than earlier proposed, but take a look at the comparisons to normally used weps.

small port:

Assault Laser
Level MkI (great for botting)
Damage: 750/s //average DPS of commonly used guns is around 4000
Velocity: Instantaneous Range: 200m
Energy: 25/s
Mass: 500 kg
Grid: 4
Requirements: 3/3/1
DPE: 30 //average DPE of commonly used guns is around 45

Note: wielding four of the above gun wouldn't be as useful as you might think, as it would be damned difficult to have all four beams hit your target (unless the target were something pretty darned big). Remember these small-diameter beams go straight with NO autoaim. There is no clustering of these shots.

Level MkII (Decent pvp)
Damage: 1500/s //2500 DPS less than most guns used in PVP
Velocity: Instantaneous Range: 100m
Energy: 35/s
Mass: 750 kg
Grid: 8
Requirements: 6/6/6 and 100 PK badge
DPE: ~43 //near a normal gun's DPE

Level MkIII (Good pvp)
Damage: 2250/s //1750 DPS less than most guns used in PVP
Velocity: Instantaneous Range: 50m //at this distance, AAP shots will travel this distance in 0.24s
Energy: 40/s
Mass: 700 kg
Grid: 12
Requirements: 8/9/7 and 500 PK badge
DPE: 56.25 //better than an average gun's DPE

Note: the MKIII may need a little energy consumption tweaking, though I'm not sure. I imagine it competing for the same role that AAP and Raven fulfill for close combat. For comparison purposes, the Raven has 50.00DPE and 3125DPS and is 280kg, while the AAP has 47.06DPE and 3810DPS and is 500kg. Keep in mind both these guns have GOOD autoaim.

large port:

Laser Cannon
Level MkI (good for botting, maybe close-range chasing)
Damage: 2000/s //MegaPosi has 4800
Velocity: Instantaneous Range: 150m
Energy: 45/s
Mass: 1000 kg //MegaPosi has 500kg
Grid: 8
Requirements: 8/5/7 and 100 PK badge
DPE: 44.44 //MegaPosi has 66.67

Level MkII (MegaPosi contender)
Damage: 3000/s //1800 less than MegaPosi
Velocity: Instantaneous Range: 125m //distance MegaPosi bolt can travel in 0.61s
Energy: 50/s
Mass: 1100 kg //MegaPosi has 500kg
Grid: 8
Requirements: 10/7/9 and 500 PK badge
DPE: 60 //Still less than MegaPosi

These weps should not be compared to Rail Guns, as rails can be used at distance... while these can not. Before you say that these guns are extremely overpowered, remember that in order to get a full second's worth of damage you need to be aiming DIRECTLY at the opposing ship for a full second... doing so is harder than you might think.
Also, it may be useful to put a "maximum seconds continuous fire" as well as a delay (between firings) of these guns. I leave that up to you.

It should also be noted that these guns actually aren't incredibly useful against cappies given their low DPE and DPS.

Seems no one saw this. I think these are decently balanced... would like help refining them so that we can get some of these guys in-game.

Looks cool to me, go for it!

A weapon with a maximum range of < 500 m is entirely useless for chasing.

There has already been a lengthy discussion of how beam weapons would have to look in the other recent thread on the subject. These models don't seem particularly more appealing than the ones suggested there, as they still don't really provide any value outside of a pvp gimmick.

They need to weigh much more, keep in mind the balance issues that would occur if someone put these on an extra light ship with super sharp aim like the valk or centurion super-light or something. When you put a single one of these things on your fighter it should start aiming like a prom.

Ladron, true on the chasing point. As for the other threads, I know: hence the title of this thread. I thought up these guys after reading the recent threads. I took into account much of the suggestions, etc. with this guy.

ShankTank, I'm not sure these guys need to be soooo much heavier. Having a beam-wep aim like a tank given the stats below makes no sense, as it would be impossible to hold the beam on a player for the 10+ full seconds it would take to kill them. The beam weps I've suggested are already pretty damned heavy compared to their counterparts, and also do far less damage, have far less range, and use more energy than the currently used weapons (not to mention that the more potent of these weps can't be dual-weld). Further nerfing their weight may be a bit of a mistake. I'd like to hear more on the subject, however.

I think you're taking the wrong approach to this, Atice. As I said in the other thread about beam weapons, they won't add any real value to the game unless they do something different. As it stands, these are essentially the same thing as light blasters - low damage but easy to hit with at small distances.

If we want to give these a purpose, do one of two things.

A) Make them anti-capship weapons. High DPS and ludicrously high weight (I suggested 8000 kg last time, that might even be too low). Ideally there shouldn't be a range limit, or at least it should be pretty damn high (on the order of 4 km). Four of them together on an orion hornet should turn it into a pretty much stationary emplacement that can drop the shields on a trident by itself in one full heavy battery, but is incredibly vulnerable to attacks by lighter craft. This kind of weapon could even have its own battery that is spent over the course of using it so that not only does it drain the ship's battery but also has a limited number of shots. Furthermore, these should require a charge-up period of about 5 seconds and then a discharge period of about 5 seconds; during that entire time the battery is kept at about 0.

OR

B) Make them chasing weapons. Again, the range needs to be sufficient for the purpose (1000m would be fine). They need to be large-port weapons that take up a heavy slot and do extremely high DPE but fairly low DPS. The idea here is that you set up behind a running moth or centaur, slam on the turbo, and slowly whittle away at their armor while closing distance on them. When you get close, switch to neutron blasters or whatever and smash through the rest of their hull.

In either case there should be absolutely no auto-targeting whatsoever.

If you can come up with another idea that will add something to the game, fine, but we don't need "another underpowered energy dueling weapon"

I see your point. You want new weps to have new roles. Fine. You have some good ideas here.

I submit, though, that these weps are not another underpowered energy dueling weapon. While they are somewhat underpowered for a 1v1 (though I'm not so sure they are), I think they could do some incredible damage in group combat. These guns would be insanely good for support craft, who sneak up behind an enemy that you're attacking (so they can see broadside), then unleash an insta-hit beam on them at close range. These guns are powerful enough to be used, and are different enough in their own right.

Your suggestions are good, however, and you should write up another thread.

I'd love to mount a weapon like Atice describes on my hog for a furball-bump and do it!

How about making them low energy consumption, very low damage rates but with exceptional auto targeting (comparable to the AGT), good at long ranges, and limited to ranges 200+ meters. Perhaps you could legitemize this by saying particles coalesce or somehting like that.

Pirates could use it to wear down hulls even as they are closing in, because the energy consumption would be low.

And large ships could use it to wear down fighters that are trying to keep distance.

It might make for more interesting interactions between large and small craft, forcing them to fight closer.

The whole point of the weapon im proposing is to force the enemy to get close, because you can *slowly wear them down from long range with it.

And the skill involved would be... where, rg10?

rg10, I think the beam wep should be a skill based weapon. As for weps that force people into close combat: I suggested one awhile back, but it didn't really go over well:
http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/21007?page=1

Ladron: I think the 'capship killer' beams would be totally awesome. But, if they have a range of 4km then There should be a damage falloff, so we don;t have someone sitting around in b8 with 4 of these things just frying people from way out of any other weapon range. (I love the concept though)

A long-range beam weapon like that would just rock. GO CAPPY SLAYER RAY! WOOHOO

Spedy, Ladron, make your own thread (cool idea, but stay out of my thread :p). This one is for the suggested weps in the OP.

Spedy: well the idea is that it would be useless against light craft due to a) the fact that it's impossible to aim with a ship that has an additional 64kg of mass and b) they have a charge-up period before firing. Getting a hit on a fighter at 4 km would be very improbable, and even if you did it would only last a split second before the fighter got out of the way.

Against capships, though, the range is absolutely necessary, otherwise you'll get eaten by capgauss.

Atice: There are way too many threads about beam weapons already.

ladron: that's the stupidest thing you've said in awhile. A new suggestion belongs in a new thread. This thread is not about beam weps in general, it is about the ones in the OP. I don't give a damn how many beam weps threads there are. We've had dozens of raptor threads (each with its own idea), and the only one complaining about that is you. Suck it up and deal.

I can dodge incoming fire almost indefinitely in my duelling setups. Even the medium-heavy ones. If my opponent is similarly adept at dodging, the fight occasionally lasts upwards of ten minutes.
If I'm not being hit during that time, but I'm able to hit you and do ~100 points of damage just from sliding my aim across your ship while I'm safely at 150-200m, you're eventual toast. (Unless you have a beam weapon like mine, of course, in which case I will lose because my aim is actually very bad. But that's not the point.)
The only way to get around this advantage would be to close the gap or spray and pray, while actively dodging the enemy's laser death. Closing on someone who does not want to be closed on is nearly impossible without strong DC or weight advantage thanks to the venusian judo technique, and active dodging would be nearly impossible because the laser-wielding ship can turn a lot faster than even the lightest craft can dodge. (There's math behind this that does not fit in this margin. Long story short is that this advantage actually gets larger as the target gets farther away.)
In particular, a weapon like this would make anybody with a diamond dodge bind and reasonable centering discipline a top-tier fighter.
I played an FPS that had a weapon like this, and it went pretty much as I described. I wish I could remember what it was.
-:sigma.SB

I see what you're saying...
Given the incredible close proximity that you'd be forced to be at in order to achieve your 100damage/pass, though, I think flares would make one hell of a counter-weapon. In short, I think the counter for these weps already exists. I also would say that at the distance you'd need to be at to get the hits you want, I could take you down with an all-energy setup :).

Now all we need is a plugin to tell me how far you were when I shot you to test this theory :).

Moreover:
The only way to get around this advantage would be to close the gap or spray and pray, while actively dodging the enemy's laser death.
That sounds like flares to me.

But seriously, I hear what you're saying. I'd really, really love the opportunity to test weps like this in a duel on the test server (for viability purposes), but I know that won't happen :/.

> But seriously, I hear what you're saying. I'd really, really
> love the opportunity to test weps like this in a duel on the
> test server (for viability purposes), but I know that won't
> happen :/.
If it does, you can count me in.
-:sigma.SB

Evil double post:
> Now all we need is a plugin to tell me how far you were when I
> shot you to test this theory :).

This good enough?
-:sigma.SB