Beam Overview
This article contains information relevant to both the C# and VB6 versions of Aurora. Where differences exist, they are noted in the appropriate sections.
This page provides a brief overview and comparison of Beam Weapons and CIWS. Beam weapon in Aurora refers to every weapon that isn't a Missile weapon or CIWS, and are operated by a beam fire control sensor.
Overview
Beam weapons are very short-ranged compared to missile weapons but they can do a lot of damage in a short space of time and they don't need ammunition. Beam-armed ships can be deadly when waiting in ambush at a jump point. Every ship suffers jump shock after a jump and a beam ship can do a lot of damage in that time, if it is experienced enough to respond to orders quickly.
All beam weapons work in a vacuum. Only Mesons will work through any thickness of atmosphere. All other beam weapons lose power as the atmosphere gets denser on a linear scale with 1 atmosphere pressure being the point where beam weapons lose 100% power. Similarly, Beam weapon effective range will be reduced in Nebulae systems.
Beam Weapons are designed components. Each component has several background technologies that can be set independently to configure a weapon for the desired cost-benefit balance. The balance between different weapons will vary as they all advance. In any event, Aurora is very situational and often you need the right weapon for the situation. There isn't a 'best' weapon for all circumstances.
Energy Weapon Types
Energy weapons usually has two paired techs: one that determines the weapon damage, and one that determines the weapon range, often with some interplay between the two. Additionally, all energy weapons are powered by a capacitor which draws energy from a ship-based Power Plants. Therefore, all energy weapons depend on the capacitor recharge rate technology. There are several types of Energy Weapons:
- Lasers are the staple energy weapon. They have the longest ranges of any energy weapon at a comparable tech level, but they also have a steep damage drop-off with range. Lasers can be mounted in turrets. Focal size determines damage and wavelength determines damage fall-off. Both interplay to determine range.
- Lasers are the yardstick for other beam weapons and are reasonably good at everything. Larger lasers can be used as offensive weapons and have a good damage output. Small lasers can be used as dedicated point defence weapons, or slightly larger ones can be used in a dual point defence / anti-ship role.
- In C#, Lasers can have spinal mounts, which can allow a single larger weapon to be added to each ship.
- Particle Beams have no range drop-off, causing the same damage across their entire range. Their range is slightly worse than lasers, and at equal tech levels, a particle beam will out-damage lasers at its maximum range who will do only a portion of its damage. Particle beams cannot be turret-mounted. Particle Beam Range determines range and Particle Beam Strength determines damage.
- A ship armed with particle beams should attempt to engage at longer ranges against other beam armed ships to take advantage of its fixed damage, while enemy damage decreases with range. This is a pure anti-ship weapon and would perform badly if used as a point defence weapon.
- In C#, the Particle Beam also adds a Particle Lance option at higher technology levels. This dramatically increases the size, cost, and damage of the system, while also giving it a damage template that is extremely good at punching holes in armour.
- Mesons are short-ranged weapon, effective at bypassing defences. They do very little damage per shot (they are fixed at 1), but they ignore shields and armour causing Internal Damage. They can be turret-mounted. Focal size and focusing technology interplay to determine range.
- Mesons turrets are quite a popular choice for point defence, partly because they are ideal against an opponent who uses armoured missiles and partly because they are a very good anti-ship weapon at point blank range.
- High-Powered Microwave (HPM) are short-ranged like a meson cannon but effective against shields and electronic systems. HPMs also do little damage per shot (fixed at 1) and ignore armour. But, they do bonus damage (x3) to shields, and once shields are down, microwaves only affect electronic components. They cannot be turret-mounted. Focal size and focusing technology interplay to determine range.
- HPM can be a powerful weapon, if used properly. Although it causes no damage to the majority of a ship's systems, it can blind the enemy, either forcing him to retreat or rendering him vulnerable to more destructive weapons. However, it is also quite expensive, costing twice as much as a similar size Meson Cannon, and difficult to employ effectively because of its relatively short range.
- Plasma Carronade have the highest damage of any energy weapon, but are extremely short-ranged. They have only one background tech besides capacitor recharge rate: Plasma Carronade calibre, and there is no way to enhance range beyond increasing the damage output. They are generally larger than other energy weapons of equivalent tech level and thus more damaging, but their extemely short range renders them with limited use. They cannot be mounted on turret.
- If you are outclassed technologically then build a ship with a few of these and wait for your opponent beyond a jump point. It cannot be turret mounted and is far from ideal as a point defence weapon.
- In C#, Plasma Carronades can have spinal mounts, which can allow a single larger weapon to be added to each ship.
Kinetic Weapon Types
- Railguns shoot four projectiles at once and their total damage is approximately one third higher than a laser of similar technology. The damage falls off in the same way as lasers and their range can be extended by researching Railgun Launch Velocity. Because each shot does less damage than the total damage of an equivalent laser, the range is shorter and the damage is spread across the armour rather than penetrating in a single area. The range differential may not be an issue though if you don't have the fire control technology to take advantage of the laser's greater range. Although railguns cannot be mounted in turrets, they are still often used for point defence at lower tech levels because their high rate of fire compensates for their inaccuracy against fast moving targets.
- Gauss Cannons are primarily a point defence weapon and in that role their performance is superior to the other weapons under most circumstances. They inflict only one point of damage but fire several shots per volley. They can be mounted in turrets and on a full size ship it is unusual to see a gauss cannon that isn’t turret mounted. Their background technologies are Gauss Cannon Rate of Fire, Gauss Cannon Launch Velocity and Gauss Cannon Size vs Accuracy. Unlike other beam weapons, there is no 'larger' version with a greater focal size. The max gauss cannon size remains 6 HS. However, you can reduce the size of the gauss cannon, while retaining its rate of fire, at the cost of reduced accuracy. This makes it useful as a weapon for very small spacecraft such as fighters. In a fighter vs fighter engagement the low damage output of the gauss cannon is offset by the fragility of the target. Another advantage of the gauss cannon is that it does not require reactor power in order to fire. It will always fire every 5 seconds.
- Close in Weapons System (CIWS) is a fully automatic, self-contained, non-military defensive system. It offers lighter and cheaper solution compared to a dedicated gauss turret in the same role, however, it has a set tracking speed and can only protect the mounting ship. CIWS allows the designer to add a self-contained anti-missile system without having to worry about anti-missile-oriented sensors and fire control systems and the player doesn't have to be concerned with allocating weapons or fire control systems. Meaning, if a missile is about to hit the ship, it will open fire.
- It is intended to be added to non-escort warships as a last-ditch defensive system. However, they are of limited use in large fleets. Since CIWS can only protect the mounting ship. Which means that for the mass of 5 CIWS systems, each ship only gets 1 CIWS worth of protection. By using equivalent turrets, for a small amount of extra mass, you can give 5 CIWS worth of protection to EVERY ship in the fleet at once, because turrets are able to protect not just themselves, but their fleet-mates as well.
Comparison of Beam Weapons
The information for VB6 can be found here.
The following is an analysis of the beam weapons with exception of CIWS, which cannot be used for offensive measures.
Also see Beam Weapon Range.
The weapons use their 6th tech level of research in caliber and range, where applicable. The Particle Beam has 12 Strength and 320,000km Range, and Gauss Cannon is using RoF 4 and Launch Velocity 40,000. All weapons (excepting Gauss Cannon) use Capacitor Recharge Rate 6.
Since HPMs have the same damage drop-off and range as mesons of equivalent technology, they're not listed separately. Anything that applies to mesons will apply to microwaves here.
These are the relevant stats of each weapon system examined:
| Weapon | 30cm Laser | 30cm Railgun | Strength-12 Particle Beam | 30cm Meson | 40cm Plasma | Gauss |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Base Damage | 24 | 7 | 12 | 1 | 42 | 1 |
| Amount of Shots | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| ROF (5sec increments) | 4 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 7 | 1 |
| Range Modifier | 6 | 6 | 32* | 6** | 1 | 4 |
| Size (in HS) | 10 | 9 | 6 | 9 | 6.25 | 6 |
| Cost | 176.4 | 165 | 240 | 176.4 | 77.8 | 48 |
| Crew | 30 | 27 | 18 | 45 | 19 | 12 |
| * At 320km the damage of this Particle beam drops to zero. | ||||||
| ** Meson caliber does not affect damage, but it still influences the range. | ||||||
These are fairly mid-game weapons, with enough research to let each of them settle into their respective niche. The total research costs for the weapons and BFC are included in this table:
| Research | BFC | Laser | Railgun | Particle Beam | Meson | Plasma | Gauss |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RP Cost | 241.5k | 121.5k | 93k | 180k | 121.5k* | 126k | 43.5k |
| * Armour Retardation technology not included; with it, Meson would have an additional 31.5k RP cost | |||||||
File:Damage per Shot CSharp.png
The first thing to look at is the pure damage per shot for each weapon. Here, the Plasma Carronade shows its strengths, being able to put out a lot of damage at point-blank range; however, it drops off very quickly, negating its effectiveness across longer ranges.
The railguns and lasers follow suit, railgun having slightly higher overall damage due to having four shots per salvo. They follow same drop-off rules, so their effectiveness drops at similar intervals, with lasers overtaking railguns at certain brackets.
After them, the particle beam follows. While the damage point-blank is unimpressive, the particle beam doesn't lose it with range, allowing it to be much more effective in medium-to-long-range combat. Still, past 320,000 km the damage drops to zero, allowing other weapons (even carronades) to take potshots without reprisal.
Then, Gauss Cannon makes its showing with 4 shots of 1 damage each. It is not meant to be an anti-ship weapon, and both the range and damage show it... but, as can be seen later, gauss cannons shouldn't be underestimated.
Final, and last, weapon to cover is meson (and HPM). It only has 1 point of damage, and one shot, resulting in anemic performance close by, but as a small mercy, it maintains said point across the entire range band, allowing it better performance at range. HPMs get by being only able to target specific - and oftentimes critical - systems of warships, though shields will stop them dead.
The next step to cover is look at the density of fire. After all, most battles are not decided by a single salvo in perfect conditions, but by consistent volume of fire bringing the shields down and shredding the armor to pieces. For that purpose, the weapon size is taken in consideration in addition to their recharge time (BFCs, reactors and crew quarters are not accounted for, as they tend to be a small, yet annoyingly varied part of the volume).
Due to being half the size of equivalent laser caliber, Plasma Carronades shoot up in this graph, even though more damage means needing to take more time to reload. This makes them a good choice whether you want one large powerful strike (with bigger carronades), or a consistent stream of damage that's hard to reach with other weapons (with smaller carronades). Of course, all of this hinges on you taking your fights in ranges from 0km to 10,000km, as immediately after the damage drops by half and only gets worse from there.
After the Carronades come Gauss Cannons. Despite their lower damage per shot, they have many shots, and quick rate of fire, and even smaller volume, compared to the laser and railgun, allowing them to output really good amount of damage in range. That said, they're easy to outrange.
After that comes the laser and the railgun, dependable all-rounder weapons. They both are good to use at most ranges, and the best at extreme ranges, on the account of their competition not having range to reach that far, but railgun, needing an extra increment to reload due to increased power draw, has a smaller gap between it and the laser on this chart.
The next up is the Particle Beam. The consistent, 6 HS volume helps it get an edge over bigger weapons, but it still suffers in both close and extreme ranges. It is still exceptionally good in mid-long ranges; a perfect choice for kiting.
Mesons would be good for kiting too, if not for their low damage. They're still better in longer ranges, and ignoring shields and some armor allows them some niche, but... Their DPS will, unfortunately, be low no matter what you do.
File:DPIS Range Adjusted CSharp.png
The final chart will show the effects of Fire Control on the accuracy, and consequently, DPS of the weapons. Naturally, it has more notable effects at longer ranges, with the Particle Beam being impacted the most. Crew grade and Tactical skill can alleviate that to some degree, but combat at longer ranges will still suffer from frequent misses.
Notes
- See also Summary of Beam Weapons and CIWS tutorial.