Beam weapons.

[Naiphe]

Greetings all. Yes beam weapons. My downright most favourite weapons in the game easily. They look amazing and the feel good but..

I have asked this in two dev Q & A's and recieved no answer. I appreciate you are busy and this truely is a first world problem, however; Beam weapons really are bad.

Not only do they do the same (or slghtly less?) as amcs, but they have half the range. 2.5k standard range is so much of a downside compared to amcs that it simply makes beams worthless Beam+beam weapons are not a good weapon at all and even linking beam + beam only gives you 7.5k range with a short duration and a long cooldown rendering them pretty horrid as a setup.

I am unsure as to how to fix them. But my suggestion is "they need a look at".

Currently they are broken and useless. They need an advantage for using them. Instant damage isnt really equal compared to the advantage of 5k range. I mean at 2.5k range AMCs cant exactly miss either but come with the advantage of more burst, double the range and even a sound effect to sweeten the deal.

Perhaps beams could be 5k standard range and do 20% less damage compared to amcs. Or maybe keep them at 2.5k and do double the damage of amcs to have them as a short range blasting weapon. I dont know I'm not the game designer! but as a player my fyi for your itk is that they are currently trash compared to amcs and really need a look at. They make okay point defense vs missiles but other than that I just fail to see a use for them over cannons.

Much <3 for the game. Its fantastic keep it up cant wait to see what the future of starmade holds.

 

[Jaaskinal]

They make okay point defense vs missiles but other than that I just fail to see a use for them over cannons.

They don't. At all.

 

[MrFURB]

The range and speed of weapons are dynamic based on the size of a sector and the server's speed limit, respectively. Beams naturally have an advantage in environments with larger sector sizes and smaller max speeds, with cannons having an advantage in environments with smaller sector sizes and higher max speeds.
This is due to the 'effective' range of cannons being limited by server speed. In the average mobile sub-capital battle you will want less than two seconds of lead time for any good amount of accuracy. That's about two kilometers of effective range for every 100 m/s server speed.
In a server with 5km sectors and 300 max speed, the relative speed and range of cannons will be enough to outdo the accuracy benefits of beams, making them a better choice. It would take cannon projectiles just under a second of flight time to reach the maximum range of beams.
In a server with 10km sectors and 200 max speed, it would take cannons 2.5 seconds to reach the maximum range of beam weapons, which I like to view as an equal ground for both beams and cannons.
20km sectors and 300 max speed; Cannon projectiles would require 3.3 seconds to reach the max range of beam weapons, making the accuracy of beams more valuable than the bonus range of cannons.

Beams deal the same DPS as the other main weapon systems; where a basic cannon attacks once a second a basic beam attacks 5 times once every five seconds with both weapons dealing the same damage per tick.

The changes a full beam/beam weapon have are double the range, double the power consumption, double the damage, and double the cooldown.

 

[CyberTao]

The changes a full beam/beam weapon have are double the range, double the power consumption, double the damage, and double the cooldown.

Is it double? The config sets the value to 2, but almost all of the values in that section have an implied +1 add onto them from what I learnt (Given that we have values of '1' after all).

 

[MeepMoop]

The range and speed of weapons are dynamic based on the size of a sector and the server's speed limit, respectively. Beams naturally have an advantage in environments with larger sector sizes and smaller max speeds, with cannons having an advantage in environments with smaller sector sizes and higher max speeds.
This is due to the 'effective' range of cannons being limited by server speed. In the average mobile sub-capital battle you will want less than two seconds of lead time for any good amount of accuracy. That's about two kilometers of effective range for every 100 m/s server speed.
In a server with 5km sectors and 300 max speed, the relative speed and range of cannons will be enough to outdo the accuracy benefits of beams, making them a better choice. It would take cannon projectiles just under a second of flight time to reach the maximum range of beams.
In a server with 10km sectors and 200 max speed, it would take cannons 2.5 seconds to reach the maximum range of beam weapons, which I like to view as an equal ground for both beams and cannons.
20km sectors and 300 max speed; Cannon projectiles would require 3.3 seconds to reach the max range of beam weapons, making the accuracy of beams more valuable than the bonus range of cannons.

Beams deal the same DPS as the other main weapon systems; where a basic cannon attacks once a second a basic beam attacks 5 times once every five seconds with both weapons dealing the same damage per tick.

The changes a full beam/beam weapon have are double the range, double the power consumption, double the damage, and double the cooldown.

You seem like you're saying beam weapons are good if the sector size and server speed is increased.
This is not really a good thing, and if a player has to edit the server config to make a weapon viable(while simultaneously shunting another weapon type), then something needs to be changed to the default settings.
Towards the end of your post, though, you seem to sound like you're saying beams and cannons are already balanced, so I don't know.

 

[MrFURB]

You seem like you're saying beam weapons are good if the sector size and server speed is increased.
This is not really a good thing, and if a player has to edit the server config to make a weapon viable(while simultaneously shunting another weapon type), then something needs to be changed to the default settings.
Towards the end of your post, though, you seem to sound like you're saying beams and cannons are already balanced, so I don't know.

My opinion isn't important in the matter. I enjoy beam weapons on smaller ships and I find that spinal mounted beam/beam arrays make for good 'superweapons' for larger vessels, but other than that the usefulness of beam weaponry depends more heavily on server and config settings than the other weapon types. I think the best solution for now is to have a default config that makes sense and make sure that server hosts know how to handle config changes to allow weapon diversity.

 

[EtherEel]

It's utterly confounding to my brain that Beams, which are essentially Lasers, that are emitted at light-speed (ie. instantaneous), are so completely inaccurate and have a shorter range than Cannons (whose projectiles move at sub-light speed.)

My opinion: Beams should be very accurate and long range but cause less damage; Cannons should be less accurate and shorter range but do more damage. (This seems glaringly obvious to me.) The recharge rate should be equivalent.

This would require some "love" to the targeting dynamics, however. (Are there actually targeting dynamics??)
It would also likely necessitate a revision of the linkage charts (and all you old-timers will hate that...)

~

 

[jayman38]

One suggestion I read in the forums on beams that I really liked was to have them dissipate damage linearly over distance. So 100% damage at point blank range, 50% damage at 50% max range, down to nothing at full range. Then the range on beams could be extended to the same as cannons, without the "guilt" of using an instant-hit weapon at such a long distance. So with this linear damage fall-off, even if you were able to land every hit at maximum range, you would do insignificant damage. I think everything else could remain as-is, because the damage dissipation would offset the increased range, while seeming "more realistic" in this sci-fi environment. Of course, insignificant 1% damage on a 10-block beam array is quite different from an insignificant 1% damage on a 2000-block beam array, but that's a story for another time.

 

[Raisinbat]

I'd just like to point out that beam weapons are worthless until this is fixed
http://bugs.star-made.org/issues/1219

I'm having them glitch through stuff as early as 1km and completely useless beyond 4km

Probably not the right thread for this but i hate how theres no range scaling for weapons; you can fit fighters and drones with artillery and it works perfectly fine, making them tiny and impossible to hit at their effective ranges. Also the power to dps ratio of weapons being the exact same regardless of range/projectile speed/firing speed/weapon spread/homing missiles is absolute nonsense.