Pulse vs. Beam?

[jawillroy]

Forgive me if it's been hashed out, but I'm not seeing this either in the rules or the errata: thus far, the only concrete difference I can see between pulse lasers and beam lasers is cost and tech.

How do the two differ in T5 combat, and where is this explained? It it somehow a product of the stage effects that I'm missing?

I'm sure I'm missing something. It's a big dose of CT deja vu, though.

 

[David Johansen]

One, I forget which, is higher TL than the other. TL is the basis for attack rolls. Thus the one will hit more often than the other. Also, when you apply stage effects, "Ultimate" maxes out sooner than the other.

 

[dalthor]

Per T5.09, page 367:

Mining Laser is an industrial-strength Laser system created for asteroid mining. Its primary use is slicing nickel iron asteroids at relatively close ranges.

Pulse Laser is a weaponized Mining Laser with improved power and range. It fires in intermittent pulses rather than continuous beams.

Beam Laser is the standard starship Laser weapon. It fires in continuous beams to inflict greater damage.

The Mining Laser is TL-8, Pulse Laser is TL-9, and Beam Laser is TL-10, per page 301. All three have range R=7, and damage is solely based on the mount.

I didn't find anything else that distinguished between the three. Looks like a good errata item.

I'm working on an enhancement to ACS combat. I call it the Fast ACS Combat Enhancement (FACE) system. Here are my hit mod and damage adjustments for these three weapon types.

Weapon         Mod  Hits(D)  Notes
Mining Laser     0     0     Limited focal distance (R=5)
Pulse Laser     +1    +1     Improved mining laser (R=7)
Beam Laser      +2    +2     Standard starship laser (R=7)

I've made significant changes to my original version, and hope to post it in the T5 forum shortly.

About finished with formatting, just need to create a couple of my customized combat cards as examples. There are a lot of changes to the prior format.

 

[David Johansen]

The space weapons task on page 389 is given as nd<TL + C+S +Size - Range so as I stated before the big difference is that TL is a bonus to hit.

 

[robject]

I just don't know if it's a big enough difference.

One reason I think it's not adequate is that the TL of these components are for base availability. There are TL 9 pulse lasers, but for instance on Regina in 1105 you can buy TL 12 pulse lasers, and that means on Regina in 1895 you can buy TL 16 pulse lasers.

In other words, the only printed difference so far is the TL of introduction and price.


MY THOUGHT is that differences ought to show up in the combat system, and ought to take a cue from CT: "pulsed" weapons have a penalty to hit, but do a bit more damage.

 

[dalthor]

...the big difference is that TL is a bonus to hit.

Very true.

With the size and scope of the book, not to mention the fact that related subjects may be spread out in several different places, I know I've missed things.

It doesn't help that in the three revisions I can peruse (original, T5 BBB, and T5.09) many things have been removed, added, and/or moved around.
Trying to figure out those differences has been...painful.

Could you by chance list the page that accounts for the damage difference mentioned in the descriptions?

I haven't been able to find it, and would REALLY like to see it! My table above is an attempt to reconcile the descriptive versus the combat versions of those three weapons, and if I have access to the OTU info, it would be a big help.

Thank you!

 

[pendragonman]

I just don't know if it's a big enough difference.

One reason I think it's not adequate is that the TL of these components are for base availability. There are TL 9 pulse lasers, but for instance on Regina in 1105 you can buy TL 12 pulse lasers, and that means on Regina in 1895 you can buy TL 16 pulse lasers.

In other words, the only printed difference so far is the TL of introduction and price.


MY THOUGHT is that differences ought to show up in the combat system, and ought to take a cue from CT: "pulsed" weapons have a penalty to hit, but do a bit more damage.

Especially since the TL 16 versions may not even be lasers anymore. Some technology developed after the initial introduction of lasers will deliver more damage in a similar direct fire manner. Is a TL 16 Laser (of any type) significantly smaller and cheaper than the average laser at TL 12?

At TL 16 there must be some reason that Lasers are still used.

 

[David Johansen]

I don't think there is a damage difference. Not that I've ever found. We've been meaning to do some space combat. But haven't gotten to it yet.

 

[Licheking]

In the original master document on the CDROM beam lasers hit 1 extra location or maybe 1 to each side of the original location if i remember correctly, and something similar happened with Plasma compared to Fusion weapons. But don't quote me on that its been a while since i read the master document.

 

[robject]

Not in T5, it didn't. At least, the text is not there. However, that would be a solution with the same "feel" as T5 in general while faithfully preserving the Beam/Pulse differences.