NOTE: This post has been updated.
I stumbled upon this when I was trying to come up with something to fit in the medium slots on my 'Conda:
Are rapid fire pulses the Goldilocks of the fixed lasers?
The rapid fire mod has two potential drawbacks -- jitter and a damage/ROF trade-off. The former does not effect fixed weapons [this is not true; see update below], so I decided to look into how the latter's effect on DPS stacked up against a range of laser and mod combinations. These are all based on optimal potential rolls with no secondary effects; I have organized them by DPS:
So the OC'd beam laser obviously comes out on top with nearly 20% more DPS than the laser with the next highest DPS. Of course, this comes at the expense of an enormous distributor draw and thermal load compared to every of entry on the table, which will limit the weapon's overall up-time with smaller power distributors.
The OC'd burst laser comes in second place with an average of about 10% more DPS than the next three entries. Its distributor draw is about twice that of the rapid fire mods and its thermal load is about 30% more than the pulse lasers.
The next three -- efficient beams, OC'd pulses and RF pulses -- are tightly-clustered in terms of DPS, though the RF pulses have a clear advantage in terms of distributor draw and thermal load.
The benefit of the distributor draw vs. damage trade-off with RF pulses is most pronounced in ships with smaller distributors. Two large RF pulses on a Vulture with a 5A Charge-Enhanced distributor, for example, will never drain if you have four pips in weapons; OC'd bursts will drain it in roughly 30 seconds; OC'd pulses and efficient beams will in roughly 40-50 seconds. The same holds true for two medium lasers on the Cobra mkIII or Viper mkIII.
It is harder to make fixed weapons work on larger ships, given their slower turning rates, but I am pretty successful using fixed beams on my Python, so I might try swapping them out for RF pulses when I have the mats.
UPDATE:
After some rudimentary testing of a G5 RF pulse vs. an unmodded pulse, it appears that jitter effects fixed weapons. The reticle remained fixed, but the actual laser bolts bounced around the reticle, in my case, by 0.41 of a degree. I can see how this, compounded with the reticle drift of gimballed and turreted weapons, can make RF weapons difficult to use at a distance.
I stumbled upon this when I was trying to come up with something to fit in the medium slots on my 'Conda:
Are rapid fire pulses the Goldilocks of the fixed lasers?
The rapid fire mod has two potential drawbacks -- jitter and a damage/ROF trade-off. The former does not effect fixed weapons [this is not true; see update below], so I decided to look into how the latter's effect on DPS stacked up against a range of laser and mod combinations. These are all based on optimal potential rolls with no secondary effects; I have organized them by DPS:
| Type | Damage | ROF | DPS | Dist. Draw | Power Draw | Thermal Load |
| G5 OC'd Beam | 23.14 | Inf | 23.14 | 3.95 | 1.01 | 5.11 |
| G5 OC'd Burst | 5.11 | 3.7 | 18.9 | 0.625 | 1.05 | 0.78 |
| G5 Efficient Beam | 17.4 | Inf. | 17.4 | 2.05 | 0.61 | 2.04 |
| G5 Rapid Fire Pulse | 3 | 5.75 | 17.25 | 0.325 | 0.6 | 0.56 |
| G5 OC'd Pulse | 5 | 3.45 | 17.25 | 0.625 | 0.6 | 0.56 |
| G5 Rapid Fire Burst | 3.07 | 5.36 | 16.46 | 0.325 | 1.05 | 0.78 |
So the OC'd beam laser obviously comes out on top with nearly 20% more DPS than the laser with the next highest DPS. Of course, this comes at the expense of an enormous distributor draw and thermal load compared to every of entry on the table, which will limit the weapon's overall up-time with smaller power distributors.
The OC'd burst laser comes in second place with an average of about 10% more DPS than the next three entries. Its distributor draw is about twice that of the rapid fire mods and its thermal load is about 30% more than the pulse lasers.
The next three -- efficient beams, OC'd pulses and RF pulses -- are tightly-clustered in terms of DPS, though the RF pulses have a clear advantage in terms of distributor draw and thermal load.
The benefit of the distributor draw vs. damage trade-off with RF pulses is most pronounced in ships with smaller distributors. Two large RF pulses on a Vulture with a 5A Charge-Enhanced distributor, for example, will never drain if you have four pips in weapons; OC'd bursts will drain it in roughly 30 seconds; OC'd pulses and efficient beams will in roughly 40-50 seconds. The same holds true for two medium lasers on the Cobra mkIII or Viper mkIII.
It is harder to make fixed weapons work on larger ships, given their slower turning rates, but I am pretty successful using fixed beams on my Python, so I might try swapping them out for RF pulses when I have the mats.
UPDATE:
After some rudimentary testing of a G5 RF pulse vs. an unmodded pulse, it appears that jitter effects fixed weapons. The reticle remained fixed, but the actual laser bolts bounced around the reticle, in my case, by 0.41 of a degree. I can see how this, compounded with the reticle drift of gimballed and turreted weapons, can make RF weapons difficult to use at a distance.
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