Energy Weapons: Difference between revisions

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(energy weapon chart)
 
(Add details about how energy weapon tuning works. Didn't update the table, and don't necessarily endorse the old notes.)
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==Comparison==
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The microwave emitter can sort of break rocks, and is excellent for disrupting other ships while you fill them full of holes with your railgun.  The CL-150 is the most weapony of these guns, but its about half the damage of the starting mass driver.  The mining lasers ARE, however, very good at shooting rocks.  i'd choose the CL-200AP for rock shooting purposes due to the gimbal.  
The microwave emitter can sort of break rocks, and is excellent for disrupting other ships while you fill them full of holes with your railgun.  The CL-150 is the most weapony of these guns, but its about half the damage of the starting mass driver.  The mining lasers ARE, however, very good at shooting rocks.  i'd choose the CL-200AP for rock shooting purposes due to the gimbal.  
==Microwaves==
* Deliver a wide beam of 1cm-wavelength (microwave) radiation.
* Deal a mix of EMP damage and thermal (that is, energy) damage.
* The "water resonance" tuning affects the damage mix - higher water resonance means more thermal and less EMP. Thermal damage is good for melting asteroids, whereas EMP damage is useless for them. EMP damage can disable enemy ships, unless they have EMP shielding.
* Tuning the power increases the beam spread. Specifically, it gets linearly wider with increasing power. As a result, the math works out in such a way that increasing power will only increase the actual DPS when the entire cone intersects with the enemy - otherwise it will ''decrease'' DPS. So for all but the shortest-distance combat engagements, uptuning microwave power is of questionable use. For asteroid mining, however, it's generally fine.
==Lasers==
* There are two kinds of lasers - continuous-wave and pulse. The former deal pure thermal damage, the latter deal a mix of thermal and kinetic (the latter due to ablation from high-energy pulses).
* For pulse lasers, uptuning pulse frequency makes each pulse higher-energy, and therefore produce more ablation - but that means delivering less heat. Mechanically, this changes the damage mix - higher frequency means more thermal, lower frequency means more kinetic. Both of the currently existing pulse lasers have a 50kinetic/50thermal mix by default, and tunable from 100/0 to 25/75.
* For mining, the time-to-asteroid-destruction doesn't depend on the damage mix. However, thermal damage is preferable because it delivers less momentum, resulting in less scattering of the chunks.
* For combat, both thermal and kinetic damage are useful in different ways. <!-- TODO: Link to a combat guide or something? -->
* Uptuning power straightforwardly increases output power and hence DPS, at the cost of uptuned lasers experiencing wear during usage (since [https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/846030/view/3728457570843552698| 0.615.1]). For this reason, CL-600P is notable in that it's very powerful even without uptuning, and that way one doesn't need to worry about wear.
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[[Category:Equipment]]
[[Category:Equipment]]

Revision as of 12:31, 5 April 2023

Comparison

Energy Weapons Chart
Name Price Power Range Output Wavelength Estimated Average Power Estimated DPS (MJ/s) Other
Microwave 70 50 600 45 1000 50 45 Thermal and EMP damage
CL-150 150 150 8000 125 490 150 125 Thermal
Point Defense Microwave 180 50 600 45 1000 50 45 Self targeting, Thermal/EMP
CL-200AP 220 220 8000 200 650 154 80 Gimbal(36d), 4 shots per second, Thermal/Kinetic
CL-600P 3200 660 8000 600 540 396 120 2 shots per second, Thermal/Kinetic

The microwave emitter can sort of break rocks, and is excellent for disrupting other ships while you fill them full of holes with your railgun. The CL-150 is the most weapony of these guns, but its about half the damage of the starting mass driver. The mining lasers ARE, however, very good at shooting rocks. i'd choose the CL-200AP for rock shooting purposes due to the gimbal.

Microwaves

  • Deliver a wide beam of 1cm-wavelength (microwave) radiation.
  • Deal a mix of EMP damage and thermal (that is, energy) damage.
  • The "water resonance" tuning affects the damage mix - higher water resonance means more thermal and less EMP. Thermal damage is good for melting asteroids, whereas EMP damage is useless for them. EMP damage can disable enemy ships, unless they have EMP shielding.
  • Tuning the power increases the beam spread. Specifically, it gets linearly wider with increasing power. As a result, the math works out in such a way that increasing power will only increase the actual DPS when the entire cone intersects with the enemy - otherwise it will decrease DPS. So for all but the shortest-distance combat engagements, uptuning microwave power is of questionable use. For asteroid mining, however, it's generally fine.

Lasers

  • There are two kinds of lasers - continuous-wave and pulse. The former deal pure thermal damage, the latter deal a mix of thermal and kinetic (the latter due to ablation from high-energy pulses).
  • For pulse lasers, uptuning pulse frequency makes each pulse higher-energy, and therefore produce more ablation - but that means delivering less heat. Mechanically, this changes the damage mix - higher frequency means more thermal, lower frequency means more kinetic. Both of the currently existing pulse lasers have a 50kinetic/50thermal mix by default, and tunable from 100/0 to 25/75.
  • For mining, the time-to-asteroid-destruction doesn't depend on the damage mix. However, thermal damage is preferable because it delivers less momentum, resulting in less scattering of the chunks.
  • For combat, both thermal and kinetic damage are useful in different ways.
  • Uptuning power straightforwardly increases output power and hence DPS, at the cost of uptuned lasers experiencing wear during usage (since 0.615.1). For this reason, CL-600P is notable in that it's very powerful even without uptuning, and that way one doesn't need to worry about wear.