<clipped from http://biz.yahoo.com/fool/041115/1100544840_1.html >

According to a Pentagon announcement issued Friday, last week Boeing (NYSE: BA - News) successfully completed a test of one of the coolest weapons ever designed (not their exact words). Specifically, it is a Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser (which you'll no doubt notice comes really close to spelling "COOL" in acronym form) manufactured by Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC - News) and mounted on a modified Boeing 747 jet.

The combined weapons system, unimaginatively termed the "Airborne Laser" system, is part of President Bush's 21st-century update of President Reagan's Star Wars missile defense program. ...

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"wars not make one great" - yoda

So long as there are men there will be wars
--Albert Einstein

"It needs but one foe to breed a war, not two.... And those who have not swords can still die upon them...War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all; but I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend." - JRR Tolkien

"You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it; and those who brought war into our country deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out. I know I had no hand in making this war, and I know I will make more sacrifices to-day than any of you to secure peace. But you cannot have peace and a division of our country. If the United States submits to a division now, it will not stop, but will go on until we reap the fate of Mexico, which is eternal war. The United States does and must assert its authority, wherever it once had power; for, if it relaxes one bit to pressure, it is gone, and I believe that such is the national feeling. This feeling assumes various shapes, but always comes back to that of Union. Once admit the Union, once more acknowledge the authority of the national Government, and, instead of devoting your houses and streets and roads to the dread uses of war, I and this army become at once your protectors and supporters, shielding you from danger, let it come from what quarter it may. I know that a few individuals cannot resist a torrent of error and passion, such as swept the South into rebellion, but you can point out, so that we may know those who desire a government, and those who insist on war and its desolation.

You might as well appeal against the thunder-storm as against these terrible hardships of war. They are inevitable, and the only way the people of Atlanta can hope once more to live in peace and quiet at home, is to stop the war, which can only be done by admitting that it began in error and is perpetuated in pride...But, my dear sirs, when peace does come, you may call on me for any thing. Then will I share with you the last cracker, and watch with you to shield your homes and families against danger from every quarter. " - William T. Sherman, writing to the leaders of the City of Atlanta Sept. 12 1864. On November 14, he would burn more than 92% of Atlanta's approximately 5000 buildings to the ground.

"You know, I have one simple request. And that is to have sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads! Now evidently my cycloptic colleague informs me that that cannot be done. Ah, would you remind me what I pay you people for, honestly? Throw me a bone here! What do we have?"
-Dr. Evil (from the movie "Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery")

"Mini Me, stop humping the laser."
-Dr. Evil (from the movie "Austin Powers: The Spy who Shagged Me")

"Life is pain, princess. Anyone who says differently is selling something."
-Westley (from the movie "The Princess Bride")

"You fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The first is never get involved in a land war in Asia. The second, only slightly less well known, is this: never go up against a Sicilian when death is on the line! Ha ha ha ha ha ha -- "
-Vizzini (from the movie "The Princess Bride")

"You mean, you put down your rock and I put down my sword and we try to kill each other like civilized people?"
-Westley (from the movie "The Princess Bride")

"Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."
-Inigo Montoya (from the movie "The Princess Bride")

uh, so what is this doing in the suggestions forum?

I think amydala wanted to say that we need a big freakin cool laser.

Someone else decided that he'd rather comment on the nature of war.

That led some others to comment on the comment on the nature of war.

That led crippled pidgeon to satirize the whole posting quotations process.

That led you to wonder why in the heck had we all gone off on a tangent.

That led me to say, "If you post something and no one makes fun of it, are you really on the internet?"

Now that we have beam weapons ingame, it shouldn't be terribly hard to add lasers.

It would be interesting to balance them against the weapons we have now. And instantly hitting weapon? Probably need low damage and no autioaim.. not that you would need any. A long cooldown period between bursts. High energy consumption.

Given the dev beams, I'd say the capabilities have been there for a while. :P

The dev beams were like railguns. This could be like a Homeworld-style beam weapon.

The problem is that the mining beams are anchored to a specific point on the asteroid, which is a server based, non-moving, non-lagged target.

How do you return a "hit" on a mobile slightly out of time sync target?

I was suggesting a large port beam cannon on this thread: http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/7535

amygdala, maybe if you're going to make a suggestion, make it a bit more overt, otherwise this'd go to the off topic forum.

hmm, having experemented for a bit tonight using the mining beams and my unsuspecting guild mates. :) I think that it might be possible for the devs to add a L-port pulse beam weapon to the game for point defense.

They could use the mining beam tracking code, and set up something like the following.

Cool Sounding Beam Weapon Name

Size - L-port

Range - 175m (yes i said 175. this is not an offensive weapon, its to keep that pirate out at a distance where you might be able to call for help while dodging his incoming N-3 fire, i actually considered making this 125m, but i'll propose at 175 and it can get LOWER if it needs to)

Autoaim - perfect within a 120 degree arc. Eg it will hit if you are in range because it travels at the speed of light.

Damage - no greater than 400, probably less, once again this is about as high as i think we would want a weapon that cant be dodged to damage at.

Eenrgy consumption - 80 per "shot" / each beam lasts only .5 seconds, and has a repeat of .5 seconds. meaning you can fire for half of every second.

Mass - HUGE. at least 2500, preferrably 3500 or more.

Cost/levels. - obviously high combat and heavy weapons levels, high reputation, and expensive, so maybe 8/x/10/x. rep of +800 or better and a cool 20K as the base price. Normally cost shouldnt be a factor in balance because it isnt effective, and 20K still seems like a bargain to me for this, but selling it for less than that would be silly.

Anyhow, The whole point of this weapon is to keep a target away, at a distance where you might have some chance of dodging incoming fire. Scream for help while you are at it tho, because dodging with all that extra mass is gonna be hard, and it'll make you veunerable to rockets and railguns and the like. But since those take up more mass on the launcher ship, it brings the heavy ships somewhat back into parity.

Oh, and there would be NO small port version.

That sounds pretty underpowered, actually. 400 damage for 80 energy? With a 175 meter range?

Spell, that's an interesting idea. Let me make some modifications.

My modification on Spellcast's idea:
Point Defense Laser
Size: L-Port
Range: 150m
Autoaim: 120 degree arc
Damage: 400/sec
Energy Consumption: 100/sec
Mass: 1500
Cost/Levels - 7/8/x/x, +600 rep, 10K

Purpose: Light defensive laser. Can attack missiles and fighters, but has extremely short range. The laser fires for as long as the trigger is held down, and the recharge for it is equal to the period that it was fired. A .1 second shot (dealing 40 damage) has a .1 second recharge. A 7 second shot (draining a heavy battery completely and dealing 2800 damage) takes 7 seconds to recharge. It's largely ineffective against anything but the weakest armor, but its main purpose is to destroy ordnance like missiles, rockets, and mines. I suppose that it'd be useful to make people a bit more wary about attacking you because you can hit them if they're anywhere in your forward arc, and taking constant damage can't do anything good for a person's concentration. Its requirements aren't as high as Spellcast's, but they're not insignificant either - course it just isn't that great a cannon - mainly intended for traders who want to survive and run, rather than attackers.

Gamma-Ray Laser (GRASER - for those of you who read the Honor Harrington series...)
Size: L-Port
Range: 250m
Autoaim - perfect within a 2 degree arc of the crosshairs.
Damage: 3000/sec
Energy consumption: 180/sec
Mass: 3000?
Cost/Levels: 8/x/10/x, +1000 rep, 20K cr

Purpose: Heavy offensive laser. Can only attack fighter and larger ships. The gun fires for as long as the trigger is held down, and its recharge period is triple the firing period. A .1 second shot will recharge in .3 seconds (dealing 250 damage), whereas a 4 second shot (draining a heavy battery completely and dealing 12000 damage) takes fully 12 seconds to recharge. 12000 damage will kill nearly anything in space if you can hit for the full 4 seconds, but the recharge would put that weapon port out of commission for quite a while, so balancing its usage would take no small amount of skill and practice. This gun's requirements are pretty high. I might even venture to make it 8/x/11/x, but that's a balance issue.

Tyrdium: underpowered, no not really. 400 damage for 80 energy that is GAURENTEED TO HIT within a 120 degree cone out to 175 meters.

crippled: The main problem i see with those crippled is that i dont think the game engine deals well graphically with a continuous beam with 2 moving ends, which is primarily why i made it a pulse laser, a single quick graphical display, a set amount of energy and damage.
The first one might be allright, but it would have to be automatic to be any real use against missiles, and i am personally against any of the weapons being wholly automatic on something the size of the ships we have now.
The second one i dont like. the only ship that could use it would be the warthog because of the aiming arc.

true, it can't handle two moving beam ends YET, but that doesn't mean that it won't always be that way. And it doens't necessarily have to be automatic against missiles. If a "target closest missile" command could be added to be bound, then it could be easily switched to.

And the second one, it's not MEANT to be easy to use. If you've got a cannon that can wipe anything smaller than a Prometheus off the map with a single shot, you don't want it so that just anyone can use it.

For the first one, a target nearest missile would only work up to a point, since the time required to retarget would be much greater than the time needed for say, 2 gemini's to close the distance. Dont even want to think about a chaos swarm. possibly a range increase out to 500m with damage of only 1, then give all missiles 1 hull. Just enough to kill a missile, not enough to be a threat to ships. Remove the continuous beam and just make it take 25 energy with a repeat of .4 (5 shots per 2 seconds)

As to the second.
i dont like it because i think it would be too hard to use, i dont like it because i think it would be exploited as a 1 shot 1 kill weapon by griefers in a warthog with that damage rate and range. The only real use i can think of for it is to race up behind a target and open fire with it from point blank range.

Actually thats my biggest worry with any beam weapons that have a continuous damage instead of a set "shot". Since basically we are talking about a gaurenteed "hit" within the weapon range of the beam and aiming arc, having them do constant damage seems to me to be overpowered.

I toyed with the idea of a charged cannon type effect where you charge the beam, but I definitely think that that would be exploited.