27 replies to this topic

[Corvus Antaka]

.40 seconds faster beam time actually. thats almost half as fast, and means your damage spreads a lot less.

but yeah, they still need more love.

[Nik Van Rhijn]

I'd like to see a further reduction in pulse time to make them a bit closer to instant damage which would give them a reason for use. This would also increase their DPS giving them a slight damage buff. If further improvements are needed then perhaps nudge the heat down a little.
It would make them useful as a secondary close defence weapon or for hit and run attacks on lighter fast mechs. Given the extra weight and heat (and shorter range) when compared with an ML they need a clear advantage.
I think increasing range should be considered last in buffing the weapon.

[Snow Drift]

As pointed out, in the board game, pulse lasers were pretty awesome. Or maybe I just loved them because I liked the higher consistency of knowing I was more likely to do damage with them.

But in any case, the hit bonus they got, in my opinion, was the fact that they would have a longer beam duration, And have that machine gun effect they do now. But having it pulse for a long time means you could aim it a little better. You'd have to make each pulse do some good damage so that the net effect is you get more damage on target than a standard medium laser.

But then you have to balance that against the fact that a good pilot will keep most of those pulses on target, and the weapon ends up doing significantly more damage. The Battletech rules didn't account for a good hit doing more damage really. (Which is why I thought the Heavy Gear tabletop mechanics were a little cooler)

[Khobai]

Quote

40 seconds faster beam time actually. thats almost half as fast, and means your damage spreads a lot less.

Yes but ERPPCs are instant. The only way pulse lasers are ever going to be viable is if they absolutely dominate ERPPCs inside their 180m range.

Basically what that means is that pulse lasers need to do a lot more damage. I still like my idea of pulse lasers doing more damage the closer you are to the target.

[XANi]

Pulse need to have one less disadvantage to be really useful, compared to normal lasers.

Dropping tonnage penalty means you could swap L to PL in same build if you wanted bit more burst for bit less heat efficiency (which would be viable tradeoff in fast hit-and-run mechs)

Dropping heat penalty while keeping same tonnage wouldn't change much as you are still 0.5/1/2 heatsinks down compared to non-pulses

Making it constant-fire could be interesting for hit-and-run tactic, as you could use them as "heat dump", fire till almost overheat, then run and hide. But it would have to have high DPS, or else player would not have occasion to torso-twist. But then, might just use PPC

[Karandor]

I've tried MPLs quite a few times and they are horrible compared to MLs. That range you give up is HUGE. Also the extra weight means less armor or fewer heatsinks or lasers.

I run regular MLs even when I have the weight to run MPLs. The extra range on MLS generally nets me more damage anyway. I currently have 4 mechs with 4-7 MLs on them. MPL are useless IMO.

signed,
Huge Medium Laser Fan

[DegeneratePervert]

Idea: Remove ghost heat and heat penalty from pulse lasers in general. Because they need SOMETHING.

Except for small pulses. Those are not too bad.

[Johnny Z]

General Taskeen, on 21 August 2013 - 07:26 PM, said:

Its been noted, trust me. You aren't going to get wet and fishlike arguments from me.

Being a purist really doesn't have much to do with the lackluster pulse lasers; they are basically just that - not translated well in-game. The only thing 'purist' about them is their retainment of damage profile, crit space, and weight; just the same as regular lasers or other weapons.

Most people want them to be re-programmed to be even more unique, sort of like MW3's 'machine gun' pulse lasers.

What he said, and it might be good if they made the current regular lasers more like current pulse lasers.

Edited by Johnny Z, 24 August 2013 - 10:56 AM.