Pyramid #34 & #37 Lasers

[jacobmuller]

I like the articles in Pyramid #34 and #37 about redoing beam weapons. I've put the numbers through a speadsheet to combine them but was wondering if anyone else had already done the numbers?

The numbers mostly match both UT and Spaceships*; if you treat them as TL9 IR lasers they're great. When you realise, however, that Spaceships gives TL10 IR lasers double RoF and uses the damage stats as UV lasers but with better range, and UT lasers double in damage from TL9 to TL10, you either say the numbers are wrong or need to do a little interpretation.

If, as Pyr#34 treats it, 10d6 is the turning point for the square vs cube changeover, then small-arms come out weaker. But, if the damage is correct for TL9 IR, then at TL10 they come out with okay damage. You can actually put lasers ahead of electro-thermal kinectic.

Example (I like the Pulse option [despite the explosion problem] so the ranges are all doubled)

TL10 IR Pulse Lasers
BEAM WEAPONS (PISTOL) (DX-4, other Beam Weapons-4, or Guns (Pistol)-4)
Weapon			Damage		Acc	Range		Weight	RoF	Shots	ST	Bulk	Rcl	Cost	LC
Holdout Laser		2d Cr Ex	3	180/ 540	0.4/B	10	18(3)	2	-1	1	$50	3
Medium Laser Pistol	3d Cr Ex	6	640/ 1920	1.5/C	10	80(3)	4	-2	1	$150	3
Heavy Laser Pistol	5d Cr Ex	6	630/ 1890	3.3/2C	10	58(3i)	6	-2	1	$250	3
Magnum Laser Pistol	6dx2 Cr Ex	6	400/ 1,200	5/2C	3	10(3i)	7	-3	1	$350	3

BEAM WEAPONS (RIFLE) (DX-4, other Beam Weapons-4, or Guns (Rifle)-4)
Weapon		Damage		Acc	Range		Weight	RoF	Shots	ST	Bulk	Rcl	Cost	LC
Survival Laser	5d Cr Ex	12	630/ 1890	3.3/2C	10	58(3i)	4†	-3	1	$300	3
Laser Carbine	7d Cr Ex	12	1,000/ 3,000	5.5/2C	10	30(3i)	5†	-3	1	$500	2
Laser Rifle	9d Cr Ex	12	1,400/ 4,200	8/Dp	10	86(3i)	6†	-4	1	$800	2
Sniper Laser	7dx2 Cr Ex	18+4	2,500/ 7,500	18/Dp	1	36(3)	11†	-6	1	$1,000	1

GUNNER (BEAMS) (DX-4, or other Gunner-4)
Weapon		Damage		Acc	Range		Weight		RoF	Shots	ST	Bulk	Rcl	Cost	LC
Gatling Laser	6dx4 Cr Ex	18	5,000/ 15,000	85/2Ep		20	250(5)	22M	-10	1	$8,500	1
Strike Laser	5dx20 Cr Ex	18	18,500/ 55,500	900/Fp		1	70(5)	70M	-10	1	$50k	1
Laser Cannon	6dx50 Cr Ex	18	150m/ 450m	8,000/10Fp	1	80(5i)	220M	-10	1	$400k	1

* I went through the Spaceships weapons tables and rationalised, I think the term is, the numbers, ie adjusted the damage values until I got a weight match.

Output	j	original dDam	new dDam	IR Laser range		spaceships range
3	kJ	1d-4		1d-5		0.35	 (700yds) 	 c 
10	kJ	1d-3		1d-4		0.75	 (1,500yds) 	 c 
30	kJ	1d-2		1d-3		1.6			 c 
100	kJ	1d		1d		3.5			 c/s 
300	kJ	1d+2		1d+2		7.5			 c/s 
1	MJ	2d		2d+2		16			 c/s 
3	MJ	3d		4d+2		35			 s 
10	MJ	4d		8d		75			 s 
30	MJ	6d		5dx3		160			 s
100	MJ	2d¥5		5dx5		350			 s/l
300	MJ	3d¥5		6dx8		750			 s/l
1	GJ	4d¥5		8dx10		1,500			 s/l
3	GJ	3d¥10		5dx30		3,500			 l
10	GJ	4d¥10		5dx50		7,500			 l
30	GJ	6d¥10		6dx80		16,000			 l
100	GJ	2d¥50		8dx100		35,000			 l/x
300	GJ	3d¥50		5dx300		75,000			 l/x
1	TJ	2d¥100		5dx500		160,000			 l/x
3	TJ	3d¥100		6dx800		350,000			 x
10	TJ	4d¥100		8dx1,000	750,000			 x 
30	TJ	6d¥100		5dx3,000	1,600,000		 x 
100	TJ	2d¥500		5dx5,000	3,500,000		 x 
300	TJ	3d¥500		6dx8,000	7,500,000		 x 
1	PJ	2d¥1,000	8dx10,000	16,000,000		 x 
3	PJ	3d¥1,000	5dx30,000	35,000,000		 x