Fully Automatic Pulse Lasers

[Aposiopesis]

So over the course of the full beam laser fire, recharge, ready to fire again time, the pulse laser will do more damage total, but the beam laser does all its damage in one short blast and can hide in safety will cooling down/waiting to recharge. The pulse laser does more damage over time, and gets accuracy due to a constant pulsing beam, but requires constant exposure for full damage output and has higher heat because of less 'cooldown' time.

In CBT pulse lasers actually do less damage per round fired, so they only really do more damage if you count in the statistics of the accuracy of your shots over multiple rounds since you may miss once in a while, and missing with a beam laser make you worse off than if you miss a bit once in a while with the pulse laser.

Now as for the visuals, I really dig the current burst pulses as they make it easy to tell the difference between a pulse laser being fired and a beam laser.  Perhaps keeping the burst pulses, but allowing them to continue firing for a period of time similar to the method thats being discussed would keep this distinction alive.

The bolded is inaccurate, actually.

IS:

Medium laser: 5 damage, 3 heat
ER Medium Laser: 5 damage, 5 heat, more range
Pulse laser: 6 damage, 4 heat, less range

Large laser - 8 damage, 8 heat
ER Large Laser - 8 damage, 12 heat, more range
Large Pulse Laser - 9 damage, 10 heat, more accuracy, less range

Clan:

ER Medium Laser: 7 damage, 5 heat, more range
Medium Pulse Laser: 7 damage, 4 heat, more accuracy

ER Large Laser: 10 damage, 12 heat, more range
Large Pulse Laser: 10 damage, 10 heat, more accuracy


So for IS, pulse lasers do more damage and have more accuracy, but with a range disadvantage and a minor heat penalty (better than ER, though). For clan, there are no standard lasers.. pulse lasers are more accurate and more heat efficient, ER lasers are longer ranged. Both do the same damage. Pulse lasers do less per ton, however;  you can take 2 medium lasers where you took 1 pulse laser, or 7 large lasers for every 5 large pulse lasers.

With a pulse laser, you should be able to get more accuracy, more damage, and better heat efficiency than an ERLL; you're paying the cost in tonnage and range. As it stands at the moment, the 4 CLPL Nova Cat is just the crappy, low cost version of the Nova Cat (imo, its better to take the large laser Awesome). You get basically the same firing mechanic, a range penalty, and less damage in exchange for moderately better heat. With this change, the drastic shift in mechanics (continuous fire for the LPL verison) would make for a mech that plays considerably differently.

In regards to the latter, I'm pretty sure that's what all of the proponents of this want as well.. the same animation, but continuous fire.

[Brainwright]

In regards to the latter, I'm pretty sure that's what all of the proponents of this want as well.. the same animation, but continuous fire.

Precisely.  This has become continuously confused over the course of the discussion.  Instead of the three to four beam burst we have now, you'd be able to shoot one, two, or three beam bursts at your discretion, with DPS largely remaining the same if you time your fire right.  However, damage at longer ranges and against faster targets would likely increase, as you'd have a greater chance of hitting your target with the new, finer control.

The only change I'd make to that is to make the pulse lasers fire more slowly with greater individual heat, rather than the strict cutoff that RACs and flamers have now.  Make the change in rate of fire a logarithmic curve so it isn't very noticeable until the higher heat levels.  That should look a lot like what we've got now if you fire a full burst.

I wouldn't suggest pulse lasers act without any heat limit of their own, either.  If I could push my mech to the limits and keep flushing coolant to keep up fire until my opponent was dead, I would.  The damage output would just be too great.

[Aposiopesis]

In regards to the latter, I'm pretty sure that's what all of the proponents of this want as well.. the same animation, but continuous fire.

Precisely.  This has become continuously confused over the course of the discussion.  Instead of the three to four beam burst we have now, you'd be able to shoot one, two, or three beam bursts at your discretion, with DPS largely remaining the same if you time your fire right.

The only change I'd make to that is to make the pulse lasers fire more slowly with greater individual heat, rather than the strict cutoff that RACs and flamers have now.  Make the change in rate of fire a logarithmic curve so it isn't very noticeable until the higher heat levels.  That should look a lot like what we've got now.

I wouldn't suggest pulse lasers act without any heat limit of their own, either.  If I could push my mech to the limits and keep flushing coolant to keep up fire until my opponent was dead, I would.  The damage output would just be too great.

Yep, agree entirely. Any sustained fire weapon should have its own heat scale. This forces you either to take occasional cooldown times or fire in responsible bursts.

[(TLL)CapperDeluxe]

IS:

Medium laser: 5 damage, 3 heat
ER Medium Laser: 5 damage, 5 heat, more range
Pulse laser: 6 damage, 4 heat, less range

Large laser - 8 damage, 8 heat
ER Large Laser - 8 damage, 12 heat, more range
Large Pulse Laser - 9 damage, 10 heat, more accuracy, less range

Clan:

ER Medium Laser: 7 damage, 5 heat, more range
Medium Pulse Laser: 7 damage, 4 heat, more accuracy

ER Large Laser: 10 damage, 12 heat, more range
Large Pulse Laser: 10 damage, 10 heat, more accuracy

D'oh sure enough, goes to show how bad my memory's gettin, its seriously been way too long since I played CBT with my brothers.  We even had this cool dry-erasable roll out hex board the size of like 6 paper maps put together

[Philosoraptor]

I am behind this idea.