Oolite Bulletins

After requests weapon companies developed [wiki]Laser Cannons[/wiki] which do powerful punches like Mining Lasers.

Usually short ranged and has low fire rates (0.5 - 3 seconds/shot) so must aim carefully.

Pilots tend to eject if facing against a cannon when a single energy bank is left only to prevent a fatal next hit.

All Laser Cannons break apart asteroids so acts as Mining lasers also.

Cannons usually fit into ships over 130t only like a Cobra Mark III, except Mini types which are designed for escorts over 30t, and some large cannons need larger ships.

See the comparsion table in the [wiki]Laser Cannons[/wiki] wiki.

Hi Norby.

These are nice in that they do fill a niche unoccupied within 'new lasers' but there is one small problem...

You have 'laser cannons' and I have 'cannon lasers', that's a bit to similar IMO. Normally I might think 'I was there first' but in this case, I think your lasers fit the 'cannon' description better. I'll see if I can come up with a different name for mine. You've gone to the trouble of using different colours to NL so it would be nice if we could keep them complimentary.

I notice you've also used the 'alternating lasers' idea too. Nice

I admire your sheer output Norby; it seems like someone has an idea and 5 minutes later youve made the oxp
Awesome for anyone who has trouble coding... I might have to see if I can think up a request for you

Redspear wrote:

You've gone to the trouble of using different colours

I choosed the white colour as the base for cannons due to a highly powered beam probably very bright. The most hot Twin Military Cannon show pure white beam and others the much brighter counterparts of the stock lasers in similar classes.

Redspear wrote:

I notice you've also used the 'alternating lasers' idea

There are two combinatons:
- "Dual" mean a delayed usage to earn higher fire rate but keep the original damage/shot and heat.
- "Twin" mean a direct link to get double damage/shot, much more heat and the original fire rate.

The Military Cannon is based on a twin Mining Cannon linked directly instead of the delay in Dual Cannon, plus got double range. The Twin Military Cannon is a Quad Cannon with direct link and double range, so there is no point to introduce twin variants of the short range cannons.

A Dual Military Cannon is imaginable, perform much better in dogfight than in twin mode due to the less heat (so fall into the "uber" category), but a "hit and run" tactics maybe better for an Ananconda with low turn rates and large hull (an easy target), moreover smaller ships can hold single Military Cannons only.

The Twin Military Cannon produce exactly as much heat to be able to do a second shot after the normal 4 seconds delay of cannons (fortunately ). When the enemy survive both hits (equal with about 12 energy banks) then should run away until no heat remain (~70 seconds) and shot twice again.

Redspear wrote:

someone has an idea and 5 minutes later youve made the oxp

In this case there was a big help that not needed any coding due to the whole thing is supported by the core game, I just do fine tuning on settings.

TBH I simply like to talk about the possibilities with the community members due to all active members are good discussion partners, then the silent players also can enjoy the results.

I'd have, ideally liked to have avoided competing oxz's as I am sure most everyone else would too.

I think if it has come too this , the player themselves may choose to make alterations to the equipment plist viz a viz range and damage.

This is however only an opinion ,


I think CommonsenseOTB's Custom Lasers was and remains the Gold Standard and appreciate fully the inclination to offer up ones own variation on the said such.

Duggan wrote:

I'd have, ideally liked to have avoided competing oxz's as I am sure most everyone else would too.

I think if it has come too this , the player themselves may choose to make alterations to the equipment plist viz a viz range and damage.

I don't think they're really competing but I take your point that one oxp is simpler than two. Norby's made the kind of lasers that I didn't so you could argue that they compliment each other

What I perhaps should have done, after Norby's suggestion (and given my reluctance to alter the VariScan lasers too much), was make the JK laser fill this role instead of the budget mining laser (the standard one isn't that expensive after all). Then when you add in the new uber versions I'm making, I could have made another, even more powerful weapon in a similar vein. Nerfing the mining laser takes some doing and doesn't add a lot to the game, so the above might have been a more interesting approach...

As for encouraging others to tinker with plists, that's very much in the oxp spirit as I see it and could go sonewhere good

Duggan wrote:

I think CommonsenseOTB's Custom Lasers was and remains the Gold Standard and appreciate fully the inclination to offer up ones own variation on the said such.

So try this (and the soon to be updated 'new lasers' with its 'uber' options) and tell us what's missing. I know I'd be glad of the feedback and have certainly appreciated your input this far.

Duggan wrote:

Custom Lasers was and remains the Gold Standard

Thanks, now I checked. Another well-made project with the usual problem: a big update needed to match the changes of Oolite but the author is missing. At least I read all data within to get ideas for my project.

So in Laser Cannons v1.1 two new lasers are added:

Ergon A38 Blunderbuss Cannon

Powerful laser contain twin Mining Cannons linked to fire together for double damage - one shot can clear 3 energy banks! Short ranged (5km) but well cooled to get an exceptional combat performance. Better in dogfight than the well known Military Laser.

Volt V38 Vulcan Cannon

This fearsome weapon is the longer and energy saver variant of the Dual Cannon to get the highest fire rate and range (15km) in cannons, although a shot do less damage than a Military Cannon. Produce the best damage/heat in the Ooniverse but the large cooling system fit into Pythons (>250t) only.

The wiki is updated with the details.

Ok, v1.2 is out after some tests where I found the cannons are too slow in average.

- Refined stats for better fire rates but smaller damages.
- Name and description changes to follow data changes.

More polishments in v1.3:
-Mining Cannon toned down, was too good for this cheap cost.
-Blunderbuss toned up to make a dilemma between the better cooldown but short range (Blunderbuss) and more range but more heat so lower long-term performance (Military Cannon).

Norby wrote:

More polishments in v1.3:
-Mining Cannon toned down, was too good for this cheap cost.
-Blunderbuss toned up to make a dilemma between the better cooldown but short range (Blunderbuss) and more range but more heat so lower long-term performance (Military Cannon).

Fine tuning and polishing reveals the professional downloading now thanks

mohawk wrote:

Fine tuning and polishing reveals the professional

Thanks! Then here is the next in v1.4:
-Mini Cannon fit into small ships.
-Lower prices for Twin Military Cannon and Blunderbuss.
-Max. required techlevel is 12, now Zaonce introduce the full list.

New weapons in v1.5:

JK-38 Plasma Ray

Hot plasma is able to pierce through the whole hull, sometimes cause critical damages either in life support, ship controls or reactor coolers which forcing the pilot to eject, leaving a good loot or a bomb in the derelict ship. Use next to the target: range is 1km only. Works without energy because recycle plasma smoke from engines but heat up fast. Good in mining also.

ColtMaster CM-38 Plasma Web

Plasma in web form has double charge capacity than a ray so both damage and range are doubled but the recharge time also. Regenerates some energy at each shot(!) and well cooled but only an Anaconda can hold it (>400t). Often do critical damage and force to eject, but against you too! Don't be surprised if an orange beam auto-eject you, stay over 2km for sure.

See the table of [wiki]Laser Cannons[/wiki] for more data.


Another new feature is the smart enemy which use the eject button when any cannon decrease his energy into the last bank to prevent a fatal hit, which is a good news for [wiki]Towbar[/wiki] users. Ships without this button (working Escape Pod) are out of luck.

Plasma weapons use this feature in extended form: rarely kill the target, like when a plasma hit detector attached to an autolaunch system which fire sooner than from other cannon hits due to the predicted higher damage. Since Plasma weapons arrived many pilots decided to equip his ship with an Escape Pod (I always wondered why not used often in a dagerous Ooniverse). The score and bounty still awarded when you force a pilot to eject using a cannon, moreover you have more chance to get something valuable from the target ship, not only a nice explosion.

Many NPCs use cannons from now.

Norby wrote:

JK-38 Plasma Ray

Hehehehehehehe (laughing manically)! I'll get them all!! All!!

Day wrote:

Norby wrote:

JK-38 Plasma Ray

Hehehehehehehe (laughing manically)! I'll get them all!! All!!

I welcome all feedbacks both about the usage of new weapons and the new NPCs which also use these against the player.

In my first tests both Plasma was stronger in damage an critical hit probability also but after I reduced these I think a bit hard to use against fast ships due to the willfully short range. So I need beta testers to find the good balances.

I'm currently in a trader ship, so I'm not the correct tester for this.
But as soon as I've saved enough money to buy a new fighter, I'll test it.

As a trader, I use the sniping laser on my followers. It's fun, they do a looping when I hurt them, but they continue to follow me until the station. I can't kill them with this.
I guess it's the right use.

As I devised a way to move to avoid their shootings, the back laser is in fact useless. Still fun, though.

For traders I can suggest the Hassoni C38 Dual Cannon. Not so costly and has a chance to make derelict ships and bonus Escape Pods from offenders due to the damage of a shot is enough low to give some time to eject before your fatal hit but enough high to make fear in the enemy to press the eject button (a new feature in v1.5 which is not provided for non-cannon lasers).

Military Cannons usually blow up the target with the high damage, much less likely make derelicts.

Plasma Cannons can kick off the pilot sooner than any other cannon, with big luck even when the ship has full energy, but very costly: start from 25000Cr.

For aft defence the best cannon imho the Vulcan due to the highest range in cannons (15km, equal with a Beam Laser). Iron further your ass back due to heat up slower than any sniper laser. But very costly (like a Plasma Ray) and fit into Python/Anaconda/larger than average expansion ships (over 250t) only.
Think berore attack a Python's back, likely has a Vulcan here.