(Sergeant Major)

07/31/09 02:17 PM

198.169.14.82

The Viability of the Medium Pulse Laser

I shouldn't do number crunching. I am just good at missing things and making mistakes. But, I did it anyway.

The way I have it figured, if you fire a medium laser and a medium pulse laser 100 times at ranges 1-9 (the medium pulse missing 100 times at ranges 7-9), and assuming the attacker walked and the target moved 5, the medium pulse laser out performs the medium laser for gunnery skills of 5, 4, and 3.

But that isn't totally fair, because for every 1 medium pulse laser, you have enough weight invested to mount 2 medium lasers. So, doing the same thing with 1 pulse and 2 standard lasers, the pulse laser still out performs the standard lasers at gunnery of 5. At gunnery 4, the standard lasers surpass the pulse laser but just barely. For gunnery of 3, the standard lasers are mopping the battlefield with the pulse laser.

So, is the medium pulse a viable alternative for the medium laser? Well it depends. If it is a choice of one or the other, the pulse laser is looking pretty good, beating the medium laser in damage for all 10 to hit possibilities (though 11 and 12 are pretty even). If it is a matter of taking 2 medium lasers or 1 pulse laser, well then it looks to be a matter of piloting skills. A skill-3 gunner wants standard lasers. A 4 doesn't care. And, a 5 is begging for pulse lasers.

Some of this is intuitive, right? Duh - give the worst pilot the pulse lasers so he/she actually hits something. And, a -2 hit bonus with 1 more point of damage will get more hits and do more damage. What is interesting is that over time (100 turns) and space (you won't always be firing out of pulse laser range), the pulse lasers bemoaned short range isn't that big of a factor. And secondly, performance is more situational than some hardcoded aspect of the weapons' properties.

KK