67 replies to this topic

[Revis Volek]

Mystere, on 05 January 2016 - 02:19 PM, said:

Speaking of focusing lasers for effect, eat your hearts out!

Pretty sure all that does is heat up the payload on a projectile and blow it up from the inside out before it hits the target, Fiber lasers are capable of hurting metal but not in that power lever over that range i dont think. YAG and FIber lasers are the only thing i know capable of cutting metals and i think YAG's are chemical or gas based. Fibers laser are cool because they just use electricity.

This is a YAG laser...



and a home made c02 lasers....By the way they are all invisible!

Edited by DarthRevis, 06 January 2016 - 01:00 AM.

[Kerensky98]

cdlord, on 05 January 2016 - 11:53 AM, said:

Would really like to know how what with glare and particles and map fog and.......

Is our game about stompy future robots that can jump over buildings not realistic enough?

With the issues this game that with something as simple as hitboxes I don't want pgi worrying about light dispersion through various environmental particulates.

The idea of lasers getting smaller over distance is fine. It's either that or make them more transparent so they fade at max range. Anything is better and more realistic that the effect of hitting an imaginary wall at a set point.

Edited by Kerensky98, 06 January 2016 - 01:59 AM.

[Varvar86]

Make it an option [ON] [OFF] like they did with cockpit monitors.
Problem solwed, everybody hapy.

Just apply this optional principle to all future visiual/hud changes and you will make evrebody happy.

Edited by Varvar86, 06 January 2016 - 02:19 AM.

[CDLord HHGD]

Kerensky98, on 06 January 2016 - 01:59 AM, said:

Is our game about stompy future robots that can jump over buildings not realistic enough?

With the issues this game that with something as simple as hitboxes I don't want pgi worrying about light dispersion through various environmental particulates.

The idea of lasers getting smaller over distance is fine. It's either that or make them more transparent so they fade at max range. Anything is better and more realistic that the effect of hitting an imaginary wall at a set point.

I wasn't referring to those environmental factors as having an impact on the beam itself. I was referring to, what with all those environmental factors, how we were supposed to tell the difference anyways.

Another thought: Who is this going to benefit? To the pilot firing, the beam already cones due to the relative distances. To the target, you see a beam of energy coming in, you gonna watch it or you gonna torso twist to spread the damage. Perhaps it's for the target's buddy "Dude, don't worry, that laser beam is so skinny, it's not gonna hurt much."

[Mystere]

DarthRevis, on 06 January 2016 - 12:56 AM, said:

Pretty sure all that does is heat up the payload on a projectile and blow it up from the inside out before it hits the target, Fiber lasers are capable of hurting metal but not in that power lever over that range i dont think. YAG and FIber lasers are the only thing i know capable of cutting metals and i think YAG's are chemical or gas based. Fibers laser are cool because they just use electricity.

Not if they're pulsed and the pulse width is at the nanosecond range.

DarthRevis, on 06 January 2016 - 12:56 AM, said:

This is a YAG laser...

and a home made c02 lasers....By the way they are all invisible!

Hey, you're talking to someone who actually designed and built both continuous-beam and pulsed lasers in a previous life.

And I myself prefer pulsed lasers in the ultra-violet to x-ray EM spectrum range.

Edited by Mystere, 06 January 2016 - 08:06 AM.

[Luminis]

Discussing weapon ranges is kinda funny

We've got a cannon that's three times as heavy as the L/55 120mm cannon used on the Leopard 2A6+ tanks but can barely engage targets at a quarter of the L/55's effective firing range. Then again, barraging an enemy 'Mech from more than two kilometres wouldn't make for an exciting game, I suppose...

Same with the lasers, I'd assume.

[Almond Brown]

Bilbo, on 05 January 2016 - 02:55 PM, said:

I was hoping to see a video of said lazor array firing. I am disappoint.

Not sure where that thing is made but it likely that whatever area it is in would be "Browned Out" when it was fired. LOL!

[Strum Wealh]

Luminis, on 06 January 2016 - 08:56 AM, said:

Discussing weapon ranges is kinda funny

We've got a cannon that's three times as heavy as the L/55 120mm cannon used on the Leopard 2A6+ tanks but can barely engage targets at a quarter of the L/55's effective firing range. Then again, barraging an enemy 'Mech from more than two kilometres wouldn't make for an exciting game, I suppose...

Same with the lasers, I'd assume.

Personally, the believability of the weapon ranges is part of why I would have liked to see PGI use the BattleForce scale (1 hex = 180 meters) for weapon ranges and map sizes.

At that scale, for example, the AC/5 ("long" range of 18 hexes) would have an effective range of 3240 meters rather than 540 meters - which means that, for example, the 120mm GM Whirlwind (the default AC/5 of the Marauder) would compare much more favorably with the 120mm M256 (the main gun of the Abrams MBT), with the latter having an effective range of roughly 3000 meters.
Likewise, LRMs (which we know are 8.33-kg, 75mm missiles with a "long" range of 21 hexes) would have an effective range of 3780 meters rather than 630 meters (bumped up to 1000 meters in MWO) - which would allow them to compare more favorably with the likes of the FIM-43 Redeye (am 8.3-kg, 70mm missile with an effective range of 4500 meters).
The longest-range 3050-era weapon, the Clan LB 2-X (with a "long" range of 30 hexes), would then have an effective range of 5400 meters - which makes it (along with the other class-2 and class-5 autocannons) make a lot more sense as the main weapons of anti-aircraft 'Mechs like the Rifleman and the JagerMech.
With regard to the lasers, one then has the following effective ranges:

• Small Laser ("long" range 3 hexes): 540 meters
  
• Medium Laser ("long" range 9 hexes): 1620 meters
  
• Large Laser ("long" range 15 hexes): 2700 meters
  
• ER Large Laser ("long" range 19 hexes): 3420 meters
  
• Small Pulse Laser ("long" range 3 hexes): 540 meters
  
• Medium Pulse Laser ("long" range 6 hexes): 1080 meters
  
• Large Pulse Laser ("long" range 10 hexes): 1800 meters

With the longer weapon ranges would come a need for much larger maps. IMO, these larger maps should be at least 20 kilometers (20000 meters) across, in order to account for the weapons' maximum ranges (up to 10800 for the Clan LB 2-X), which also chas a couple of interesting side-effects:

• It makes scouting and screening more important, which provides tangible role-based incentives to faster (read: lighter) 'Mechs.
  
• It makes the inclusion of AI-driven non-'Mech units (especially airborne units) more interesting, and increases the relative importance of units fitted to addressing these non-'Mech units (such as anti-air 'Mechs outfitted with long-range smaller-caliber ACs).
  
• The larger maps would improve the tactical and strategic depth of the game, as options for ambushes (and the need to plan for any potential ambushes) and small-unit tactics (lance-based rather than company-based) would become more important.

Edited by Strum Wealh, 06 January 2016 - 02:01 PM.