Beam lasers and module damage?

[bladebss]

Ok so i was curious about just how breach chance and beam lasers works.

Every other gun has a rate of fire so you can use this to increase the chance of hitting a module thrugh hull, more shots means more chances. But beams..

Nothing in a video game is actualy continous, it must have a tick speed. So does that mean beams rate of fire is 60/s or some thing?

I mean how long do you actualy have to have a beam laser on target to regiser damage? I have seen it do damage seemingly instantly as it turns npcs hostile the moment i hit them even if i tap the trigger with a small beam turret. But the nest ''shot''.. i cant tell when it registers.

Basicaly im trying to use lasers to kill modules and im trying to work out if rapid fire burst lasers or beams would be better. And now this whole thing with beams and breach chance is bugging me cus the in game stats says breach damage is 6.1 on a small gimbaled beam and the damage is 7.7/s

I mean is that 6.1 a per second thing? Is it an instant 6.1 damage every time i score a breach with a cool down on the chance that equates to 6.1 per second?

A burst laser of same class does 1.2 damage and a breach of 1. So at a rate of fire of 5.3, if i score a breach 40% of the time i hit thats 2.1 breach damage/second. If i add rapid fire its 8.1 shots per second and thats 3.2 breach damage/second.

If we asume beams rate of fire is 60 then its 6.1 breach damage comes out at 2.44/second at 40% brech chance.

And then when it comes to poping the power plant.. thats a chance thing based on hits after it reaches 0 i think.. so again beams would do 60 chances/second but burst only 5.3 or 8.1.. if beams even have a rate of fire of 60?

I have tied my brain in knots trying to work out how beams and breach chance works and what laser would be best

Anyone got the knowledge on this?

 

[Trollymctrollerson]

I'm not sure the answer to the mathematical part of your question. What i can tell you is that for breaking internal modules i use cannons or plasma accelerator. The gimball wandering effect usually prevents it staying locked on a module long enough to get the results and fixed beams are also hard to drill holes with since the NPCs tend to boost and turn when taking fire.

 

[Cmdr Snuffler]

The gimball wandering effect usually prevents it staying locked on a module long enough to get the results

If you're a long way away then yes, you're correct. Gimballed SRB Beam on a Vulture at < 500m away pops power plants like a pin hitting a balloon. It's completely the opposite of what you have posted. Combine the SRB beam with a Gimballed SRB MC and elite condas pop in under 50 seconds, with SCBs, and under 30 seconds without.
I have tried a lot of weapon combos and my gimballed beam/MC setup is by far the fastest for taking out internal modules.

 

[Trollymctrollerson]

If you're a long way away then yes, you're correct. Gimballed SRB Beam on a Vulture at < 500m away pops power plants like a pin hitting a balloon. It's completely the opposite of what you have posted. Combine the SRB beam with a Gimballed SRB MC and elite condas pop in under 50 seconds, with SCBs, and under 30 seconds without.
I have tried a lot of weapon combos and my gimballed beam/MC setup is by far the fastest for taking out internal modules.

Hmmm. I will have to try that. My flight style is usually orbiting the target at more range than that but if it works as good as you say than its worth trying.

 

[Vedmo]

I don’t have answers on beam breech theory crafting, but a pulse with rapid fire will do more damage than a same size burst with rapid fire. There are better options than rapid fire for bursts.

 

[Several Puffins]

Same experience for me, I run a pair of short range thermal vent beams on a CZ FdL, and if you keep to 600m you can double bank SCBs whilst eating shields and powerplants. The only thing I have found better for modules is the railgun.

 

[goemon]

same here, beams are top notch to trigger powerplant explosion in my experience, and i think that's for their "continous" damage. i run at least one for that reason on most ships.you get a similar effect for trigegring cargo hatch malfunctions. you are very right, that in the game it will be some damage per frame or so.

 

[Zieman]

Gimballed SRB Beam on a Vulture at < 500m away pops power plants like a pin hitting a balloon. It's completely the opposite of what you have posted. Combine the SRB beam with a Gimballed SRB MC and elite condas pop in under 50 seconds, with SCBs, and under 30 seconds without.

SRB ?

 

[Speedcuffs]

S

SRB ?

Short range blaster

 

[Old Duck]

I have tried a lot of weapon combos and my gimballed beam/MC setup is by far the fastest for taking out internal modules.

Gimballed beams are my favorite for taking out internal modules as well, especially if you have engineering that lets you fire "all day" at your target. I find taking out power plants of heavily armed ships (like CZ Cutters) way easier than taking their hull down to zero. The other bonus is that beams also strip shields, so they are my weapon of choice.

 

[Several Puffins]

Absolutely. I consider cutters to be the second most squishy target for CZ massacre missions, after eagles (okay, maybe T9s on the occasions they are there, but they should all be replaced with T10s so I find it hard to count them!).

 

[here_it_comes]

So . . . about that tick rate . . . I'm interested as well.

 

[Vedmo]

Did some quick testing on beams, not the best but learned a little.

Took me ~30 seconds to drop the shields on an alt's ship with constant beam fire, which is what I expected with rough calculations.

I then did a quick trigger press and release for a burst, and did my best to wait one second before repeating. After doing that 30 times target shields were at 97%. So it doesn't look like it does full instant damage with an internal cool down before ticking again.

I then tried to hold it for right under 1 second, release, then repeat. After 30 cycles of this I had the shields down to 25% and am pretty certain most if not all of the bursts were under one second, leading me to believe it doesn't wait until the end of the second to apply damage either.

How it actually works I don't know, and I don't have the internal clock or patience to figure it out, but it definitely applies a small amount of damage instantly, as well as a bulk of the damage before one second ends.

 

[here_it_comes]

I wonder if the impact registrations on the targeted ship's holo-model on your console actually coincide with the ticks, seeing as the Beam does indeed cause what looks like ticks of damage instead of a continuous 'hit'. If so, one could simply record a Beam hitting for a handful of seconds and do some simple math to deduce the tick rate. I would do it now if I could, will do when possible if someone else doesn't.

 

[CaptainPugwash]

Did some quick testing on beams, not the best but learned a little.

Took me ~30 seconds to drop the shields on an alt's ship with constant beam fire, which is what I expected with rough calculations.

I then did a quick trigger press and release for a burst, and did my best to wait one second before repeating. After doing that 30 times target shields were at 97%. So it doesn't look like it does full instant damage with an internal cool down before ticking again.

I then tried to hold it for right under 1 second, release, then repeat. After 30 cycles of this I had the shields down to 25% and am pretty certain most if not all of the bursts were under one second, leading me to believe it doesn't wait until the end of the second to apply damage either.

How it actually works I don't know, and I don't have the internal clock or patience to figure it out, but it definitely applies a small amount of damage instantly, as well as a bulk of the damage before one second ends.

Voice attack script for precise timing?

 

[Several Puffins]

Voice attack script for precise timing?

I would go with a joystick gremlin script on a few buttons, but yes it would be good to automate!

 

[Cmdr Snuffler]

Short range blaster

Easily the best engineering for Beams...if you can keep the ship at < 800m.
Although for MCs it's the only mod I engineer as there's 0 point is using MCs out past 2km. Best DPS, no downside.

 

[Speedcuffs]

Easily the best engineering for Beams...if you can keep the ship at < 800m.
Although for MCs it's the only mod I engineer as there's 0 point is using MCs out past 2km. Best DPS, no downside.

I've just slapped two short range/Inertial impact Cytos on my MC Gunship.
Oof!
It works very well, but I'm tempted to experiment with a large beam on it now as well.

 

[Several Puffins]

Easily the best engineering for Beams...if you can keep the ship at < 800m.
Although for MCs it's the only mod I engineer as there's 0 point is using MCs out past 2km. Best DPS, no downside.

Agreed- LR or efficient beams on anything that handles like a cow, but try to fit 1 or 2 SR on anything nippy. Multicannons miss so much at 2K the SR beats overcharged by a mile in my opinion.

 

[Cmdr Andrew Johnson]

My cutter has 2 small Efficient Beam (thermal vent) turrets and 4 Efficient (Thermal vent) gimballed beams - deals with NPCs no problems at all.

Never considered Short Range but may look in to that!