[swordtart]

Not sure why people thought heat would somehow affect an IR laser. It's like expecting two crossed laser beams to deflect one another.

Thermal imaging is messed up by heat but that is the detector not the emitter. If you need to tune a rocket to a specific laser frequency then a source of random frequencies is not liable to deflect it if there is a stronger beam of that frequency passing through it. A heat seeking missile is another matter as it is designed to look for a heat source (but again in reality the frequency it is looking for tends to be within specific ranges). There are no heat seekers in CW.

Shining a visible red laser through a well it area doesn't disperse the beam. Your sensor (eye) might not notice it as it is swamped, but a red filter over your eye will show the beam is still there as strong as ever.

Smoke ammunition specially formulated to produce the right particulate to absorb IR (like brass flakes or carbon nano fibres) blocks IR effectively which is what "hot smoke" is. It is not the same thing as smoke from a hot source (as that tends to be all smoke) nor smoke in a heat source.

It would have been better if they had named IR blocking smoke as "IR blocking smoke" to avoid this confusion of function. Sadly people ignored the rule about the fluff text being irrelevant and started extending the game effect using the random words to justify it.

Sadly some of the editors allowed these shenanigans to inform canon material. Flame clouds should not produce Hot Smoke they simply produce smoke that may (or may not) be hot. If you want Hot Smoke you need special rounds for your smokescreen.