Horizons Beam Lasers overload so quickly!

[lazzah]

Hi all, I am sure this isn't the first time this has been asked, but it is driving me nuts!

Whenever I am attacked if I cannot evade the interdiction I try to fight back, but my weapons always overload so quickly I can only fire them for a few seconds. I have a Cobra Mk.III with 4A power plant, two 1E beam Lasers and 2 1F pulse lasers.

What can I do to make my weapons fire for longer without overloading?

 

[colprice2002]

Hi,

1) make sure you have 4 pips in the weapons power setting

2) buy the A rated power distributor

3) fire in short bursts - don't keep firing continuously

4) change weapons. The multicanons and canons use much less power.

5) use different fire groups for the beam lasers and pulses, then only fire one group at a time and alternate between beams and pulse

6) no small ship can fire beam lasers continuously. The largest ships can manage it, but they have significantly bigger power distributors. Even then, heat build-up means you either stop firing or use a heat sink.

While the Cobra is an excellent fast trader, it's not suited to extended combat because the shields are a bit weak. Choose you fights carefully!

 

[Robin of Spiritwood]

Hi all, I am sure this isn't the first time this has been asked, but it is driving me nuts!

Whenever I am attacked if I cannot evade the interdiction I try to fight back, but my weapons always overload so quickly I can only fire them for a few seconds. I have a Cobra Mk.III with 4A power plant, two 1E beam Lasers and 2 1F pulse lasers.

What can I do to make my weapons fire for longer without overloading?

Solution 1:
Downgrade the Beam weapons to Pulse ones.
Switch the Pulse ones to Multicannons.

- reduce weapons heat generation by using cooler weapons ( if you can keep firing you do more output overall )

Solution 2:
Run 4 Pips in weapons

- supply power to cooling system

Solution 3:
Mods.

- Install Efficient type mods on whatever weapons you run to reduce thermal load.
- Install a Weapons focused mod for the Power Distributor to maintain a high recharge rate, or a bigger Charge bank at the outset

Solution 4:

Instead of firing everything at once, set fire groups and stagger the weapons so they don't overheat. eg: Left Side then Right Side, or Big ones then Small ones

 

[lazzah]

Solution 1:
Downgrade the Beam weapons to Pulse ones.
Switch the Pulse ones to Multicannons.

- reduce weapons heat generation by using cooler weapons ( if you can keep firing you do more output overall )

Solution 2:
Run 4 Pips in weapons

- supply power to cooling system

Solution 3:
Mods.

- Install Efficient type mods on whatever weapons you run to reduce thermal load.
- Install a Weapons focused mod for the Power Distributor to maintain a high recharge rate, or a bigger Charge bank at the outset

Solution 4:

Instead of firing everything at once, set fire groups and stagger the weapons so they don't overheat. eg: Left Side then Right Side, or Big ones then Small ones

Thanks for replying. I understand Solution 1 and think I could work out 4, but the others have me stumped. It was never this complicated in the original Elite and Frontier! Yes, I am that old, 63 last week! Would you be kind enough to explain 2 and 3 in a bit more detail?

 

[CMDR Zhon Daeli]

Thanks for replying. I understand Solution 1 and think I could work out 4, but the others have me stumped. It was never this complicated in the original Elite and Frontier! Yes, I am that old, 63 last week! Would you be kind enough to explain 2 and 3 in a bit more detail?

Original Elite is a bag of peanuts.
New Elite is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

2: bottom right of your HUD, SYS/END/WEP/RST - shifting power distributor focus is assigned on your keyboard, check settings. A pip is a little square, by default all of them (except RST) have 2). Setting 4 pips to weapons shifts your power distributor focus to weapons, increasing your weapon power recharge rate, this enables you to shoot beams/pulses etc for longer, and decreases reload times of ammo weapons (like MC's). Setting it to SYS strengthen's your shields substantially. Setting it to END gives you a greater top end and lets your bank faster.

- http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Power_Distributor

Pip management is key since the AI update. Grab a cheapo sidey and go practice your pip management.

3. Mods - either engineer mods, or temporary once off mods like Small Calibre Munitions ( Systems Panel (default: 4) > Inventory > Synthesis ) which let you reload your MC's and if using rare materials, can even increase your damage output. Engineer mods let you modify a number of different modules for your ship, from FSD to weapons. They do require a bit of a work to obtain however.

 

[MickyG1982]

Hi all, I am sure this isn't the first time this has been asked, but it is driving me nuts!

Whenever I am attacked if I cannot evade the interdiction I try to fight back, but my weapons always overload so quickly I can only fire them for a few seconds. I have a Cobra Mk.III with 4A power plant, two 1E beam Lasers and 2 1F pulse lasers.

What can I do to make my weapons fire for longer without overloading?

I run mine with 2 small pulse lasers & two medium multicannons Almost never overheat using those & the multicannons are immense against an unshielded hull.

Another setup that I liked was 2 small burst laser turrets combined with gimbled multicannons

In all setups however upgrade the power distributor to the best you can, it channels more energy more quickly to your systems, meaning that you can fire for longer!

 

[GG7]

Beam Lasers are about the most demanding weapon in the game and not all ships are up to the task of running them at their optimum power levels. Even if you max out the power systems in a Cobra it is still not going to be enough to run Beams like you are probably expecting them to run.

Even much larger ships like the Python have trouble keeping C3 beams running for prolonged periods of time. Beams and Multi-Cannons are my load out of choice on all of my ships, so I consider myself quite experienced with running these things.

Of all the ships I have owned and flown in combat, the hands down best ship in the game for running C3 beam lasers is the Federal Corvette. It has the most balanced power system out there and enough reserve power to keep the C3s running pretty much as long as you want to hold down the trigger. All the other ships in the game fall somewhere below this high point in Beam Laser performance.

Not sure if there are any Engineer based upgrades you could try on a smaller ship like the Cobra that might buy you more firing time before overload, but that would be the only possible solution to your issues. While going 100% A rated on all your modules will definitely improve your beam performance, you are never going to be able to just lay on that trigger for extended periods of time. The Cobra just doesn't have the power reserves to run them like that.