Ready for update soon, just needs some testing.
Meanwhile, I thought I'd attempt a more visual explanation of what this oxp is trying to achieve.
Nature of ranged combat : When an opponent is both faster and has longer ranged weapons they can control much of combat
In the upper image the cobra is chasing the python. If the cobra has the red laser then it can immediately open fire but if it has the blue laser then it is out of range. All is not lost however as under normal circumstances we would expect the cobra to be able to move into range on account of it being the faster ship.
In the lower image however, the python will struggle to gain ground on the cobra as it is the slower of the two. The cobra can choose to engage only when it wishes two whilst the python is subject to the whims of the cobra pilot.
Rear mounted lasers make range doubly significant :
If you face a foe who is both faster and has a longer ranged (rear facing) weapon then pursuit is not only fruitless but potentially deadly.
This is especially true for non player pilots who aren't always the brightest...
In the second image, we can see that the python's blue laser is out of range while the cobra's red laser can still do damage.
The problem :
In Oolite (as in Elite) laser range increases with laser power (or at least with combat effectiveness). This compounds the issue and grants fast ships with long range lasers near invincibility in many (but not all) combat scenarios.
To moderate this effect, the player is one of the few pilots allowed to use a military laser (best range and best power available) else combats become extremely deadly when outnumbered. To balance that choice, with the military having
DOUBLE both range and power of the beam laser, the player must often be heavilly outnumbered in order for combat to be challenging.
The result is that keeping one's distance while using a rear mounted laser is both the most boring and successful tactic available. Worse than that it is sometimes the only viable one.
My 'solution' :
Remove the idea that more range must equate to more power.
So, by granting pulse lasers more range than beam lasers one must choose between range and power. Which is the better choice then depends not only on the speed of your ship but also on the facing of the laser mounting.
Slower ships would likely favour pulse over beam lasers or else they could be made very vulnerable to sniping. Fast ships on the other hand may rely on their ability to close in, do the damage quickly and get out again and so a beam laser may be the more preferable. Even fast ships might prefer a pulse laser on the rear mounting so that they could not be sniped at freely when trying to escape.
3 kinds of each laser ( 3 pulse, 3 beam etc) so that there is still a progression - you can buy a 'better' laser than before it just won't improve in both range and power. The military laser remains an exception as the player can still benefit from a 'super weapon' but its dominance will no longer be absolute. Greatest power it retains but greatest range no longer, that award goes to the new bolt laser.
The bolt laser
The idea of the bolt laser is to grant only the largest and (typically) slowest vessels a weapon of exteme range. These vessels are some of the easiest to exploit when you have a longer ranged weapon and allowing them to be picked off easily by an adder with a miliary laser seems wrong. If the bolt laser has more range however then it should not also have more power or we are back to square one.
To try to make sense of the idea that a laser restricted to the largest vessels should have less power than one that is not, rather than reducing shot power, instead rate of fire is reduced. So although it hits harder than a military laser it hits much less often.
Cosmetics
Whilst far from problematic, I still think that their is room for some more variation in the standard game. Lasers can not only look but also behave differently. The RGB colour model has been used with one of the three secondary colours missing: cyan, which has here been granted to the bolt laser. Adding the remaining secondary colour (rather than adding tertiary ones) should not increase confusion when presented to most player's eyes.
Military lasers have been made (in most cases) slighty slower than beam lasers and so they exhibit a slight stutter which adds to their character as well as reinforcing that of the beam laser. The bolt laser meanwhile fuctions like a large cannon - great range and power but slow, granting it a distinct flavour and making any successful dodge highly significant.
6 distinct laser types
- Pulse
- Beam
- Mining
- Military
- Thargoid
- Bolt
6 distinct colours
- Red
- Yellow
- Blue
- Magenta
- Green
- Cyan
6 distinct characters
- Long range, Slow
- Short range, Very fast
- Mines asteroids
- Long range, Fast
- Omni-directional
- Extreme range, Slow
(I found this back locking onto a target typically the zero G facility that I had just launched from and edging forward very slowly until my laser reticle turned red)
).
