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Old 12-29-2021, 09:23 AM   #11
Shostak
 
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Default Re: Lasers

Okay, that is all about believable range, but what about the idea of shadow hexes behind towns and forests?
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Old 12-29-2021, 11:40 AM   #12
Failure16
 
Join Date: May 2012
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Default Re: Lasers

Due to the scale of the game, I'd say no, though it would enforce some tactical choices that I could see being of some interest.

In other words, a game like BattleTech with its ten-second timescale and thirty-meter hexes should care very much about LOS and dead-spaces. A game like Ogre/GEV with its four-minute timescale and 1.5 kilometer hexes is too abstracted for it to matter in a real sense.

Having said that, a substantial element of game design is to model effects, not always physical reality. So, in that sense, I wouldn't have a problem with it. What if Laser Turrets had a 1-hex shadow and Laser Towers did not, but Towers were easier to hit (or simply had less defense value, to keep things simple and the rules uniform throughout the game)?
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Old 12-29-2021, 05:39 PM   #13
HeatDeath
 
Join Date: May 2012
Default Re: Lasers

Of course, there's nothing saying a "laser tower" has to be an actual tower.

A special purpose fixed howitzer array launches a bomb-pumped laser shell to a height of a few thousand feet [along with enough countermeasures and spoofs to ensure that the laser shell actually makes it to detonation height - that's the bulky and immobile part that prevents you from just throwing one of these on a MHWZ or Mk1 chassis].

At a pre-determined [and probably intentionally unpredictable] point on its trajectory, it detonates, and in the course of detonating, blasts a carefully targeted extremely high energy laser pulse at a target.

This seems like at least a reasonable fit for Last War-era technology [certainly compared to the ability to casually erect Burj Khalifa-sized laser towers on strategically relevant timeframes.]

See "Bomb-Pumped Lasers" here: http://www.projectrho.com/public_htm...unconvent2.php
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Old 12-30-2021, 08:52 AM   #14
Failure16
 
Join Date: May 2012
Location: Bradenton, FL
Default Re: Lasers

While I don't disagree with that in theory as a delivery system in-keeping with the Ogreverse's capabilities, I think it strays too far from the established aesthetics of the air-defense lasers as pictured.

Laser Towers are indeed literal towers that are on average 70 feet tall (call it 30-35 meters if you want a range for versatility, but that's what the specs say) and Laser Turrets are a bit taller than the average armored fighting vehicle.

Of course, in a conflict spanning a generation, there is ample room for things to change, and it is unlikely that only one single model of laser tower was built for each side. Still, even if the game rules don't expressly portray reality, there is at least some synergy or crossflow between the two. So, in the Ogreverse, tube-launched bomb-pumped lasers are not a thing because "laser line-of-sight" demonstrably is.

But I love the idea for what it is. Now, what are the game ramifications if no laser has LOS issues, but range is severely truncated? Or would your proposal be that range would stay the same while only the LOS limitations would go away? Two very different scenarios...
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Old 12-30-2021, 09:28 AM   #15
HeatDeath
 
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Default Re: Lasers

I'm saying a tube-launched bomb-pumped laser would behave exactly the same way a laser tower behaves under the current rules.
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Old 12-30-2021, 11:38 AM   #16
Failure16
 
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Default Re: Lasers

Ah, I see. Why there is no LOS shadow and the extreme engagement range? In that sense, that is a nice work-around. Though I wonder if the 'hypersmart' point-defense programming of the Ogreverse munitions would allow for such a "TL-BPL" submunition to accurately target them...though that is easily answered by the relative difficulty in getting a hard-kill on a cruise missile (and not at all on tactical munitions).

Nice. Very nice.
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