 Lasers have proven a main stay of weaponary now for a long time. Their very low maintenance cost when compared to projectile weapons and their efficiency when compared to energy weapons makes them a favorite from top notch security firms to the the dirtiest playing mercernary. The following rules will take you through the process of how to create your own Laser weapon. The C69 galaxy is a vast place so virtually every type of laser weapon imaginable is available somewhere. Just follow the steps through below. Step One: Choose Size Choose what size weapon you wish to create. This will establish the base cost for the weapon from the following table:
Step Two: Choose Modes All Lasers are considered at this stage to be off Single Burst (SB) mode. What this means is that the laser will fire in short pulses of about a shot a second and then needing two seconds to cool down. Though quicker firing than simalar simple projectile weapons for single shot modes, this for many people does no quite do the trick and they require something that can hold it's fire a bit better. The list below gives a number of different modes available to be purchased for Laser Weaponary to replace the Single Burst Mode, each mode giving the cost depending on the size of the weapon. If you wish, you may purchase more than one mode, in which case, your weapon will have a switch on it that allows you to choose which mode you wish to use.
Description: In Pulse Fire mode, a weapon will give up a number of short sharp bursts, allowing the weapon to fire continuousily for long periods of time. However, the energy wasted in doing this is much higher than with single burst mode. The weapon does not need to cool down until at least 30 seconds of continuous fire of about five burst per second have occured. After cooling down for 15 seconds, the weapon can fire again.
Description: Rapid Fire mode is a much faster version of Pulse Fire mode. The weapon fires off around 20-30 pulses per second, capable of laying down a withering curtain of laser fire. However, this draws even more energy than pulse fire and the weapon can only maintain this for about 10 seconds before needing 15 seconds to cool down.
Description: In this mode, the laser fires a continuous beam for upto a five second period before needing to shut down for 20 seconds to cool down. It expends a lot of energy firing via this method, but it is a useful mode things that need extended fire poured into them or to hit multiple targets. Beam modes, unlike other laser modes, are capable of severing items, including body parts.
Description: This is an extended version of the Beam Fire mode. This time however, the beam can last upto 10 seconds but requires a good minute to cool down before it can be fired again as well as drawing on lots of energy
Description: This highly destructive mode fires off a single burst of laser energy that is much more powerful than a single burst from any off the other modes, capable of causing more damage and penetrating armour easier. However, after firing in High Burst mode, the weapon needs 10 seconds to cool down again and it does drain a fair bit of energy. Step Three: Choose Cooling System Those cooling times could be a bit of a pain couldn't they. I mean, who wants to hang around waiting for their gun to cool down in the middle of a battle. Luckily, many Laser Weapons also have a number of cooling systems available to them. You may choose to use none of these, one of these or all of these. It's completely upto you. Just bear in mind the drawbacks of each one.
Description: The Liquid coolant system uses a special liquid to pump around the weapon, keeping the weapon cooler for longer. What this means is that the weapon can sustain firing for longer peroids. The time a beam or pulse fire mode can be held for is doubled with this cooling system. Drawbacks: The Liquid needs to be replaced about once a week, whether the weapon is used or not. This liquid costs about 10% of the purchase of this system for you weapon (i.e. for a rifle, it would cost 6 credits) and considered a common item.
Description: The Electronic Coolant System uses special fans and vents to quickly extract heat from the weapon between firing. This halves the time it takes for the weapon to cool down. Drawbacks: The Electronic Coolant System drains energy from the powercells. The weapons energy usage (see powercells later) is doubled while an ECS is in use.
Description: This system draws excess energy from the weapons firing process that won't hamper it's preformance in any way in order to power the coolant system. This electronic coolant system works constantly, enabling the weapons firing times to be doubled and halving the time the weapon takes to cool down. Drawbacks: The Energy Recycled Cooling System can not be used with the Laser Accessories (see Accessories) Efficient Energy Recycler.
Description: This system allows the user to inject a special capsule into their weapon once the weapon has overheated. The effect of these capsules is to instantly cool the weapon down, allowing it to be fired again. This is very useful for weapons that require long cooling times. For 20% of the cost of this system per capsule, you may add a magazine capacity to the weapon with this capsules, upto a maximum of 10 capsules (so a rifle with a capsule magazine of 5 would cost an additional 10 credits). This allows the user to click a button to inject the next capsule, saving time. For even faster cooling times, add the cost of this system again to the weapon to have a automatic (ACIC) system that will automatically inject the next capsule when the weapon overheats. Drawbacks: Capsules obviousily cost money. Artillary capsules are considered super rare, Heavy capsules are considered rare, all other capsules are common. The Cost of each capsules as follows: Auxillary: 10 for 1 credit / Pistol: 4 for 1 credit / Rifle: 1 for 1 credit / Heavy: 1 for 5 credits / Artillary: 1 for 20 credits. Step Four: Choose Number of Power Cells At this stage it is considered that you weapon holds only one powercell from which it takes energy from. However, for some weapons, especially in some modes, this means one is going to need to constantly change the battery (the power usage is explained below under powercells). To ease the trouble of this during battle, some weapon are capable of holding more batteries. This costs an additional 10 credits per battery to be held and the maximum number of batteries a weapon can hold depends on it's size as follows:
Heavy Weapons: Because of their size, heavy weapon require a larger power cell called a Heavy Power Cell. A Heavy Weapon comes with the ability to hold one of these already and hold an additional one for the cost of 50 credits. Artillary Weapons: Like Heavy Weapons, Artillary requires larger batteries. In the case of Artillary, this is the Artillary Power Cell which the artillary piece can already use one. It can have an additional Artillary Power Cell added for 500 credits. Step Five: Work out Availability For most places, work out the availability of a weapon by using the following rules: Common Laser Weapons: This is any weapon which is off auxillary, pistol or rifle size and does not use High Burst, Extended Fire or Rapid Fire modes. Super Rare Laser Weapons: This is applies to any artillary weapons. Rare Laser Weapons: Any Laser that does not fit into the above two catogries (Such as Heavy Weapons or Pistol, Rifles and Auxillary Lasers that have High Burst, Extended Fire or Rapid Fire modes). Note on Resbinarge and Planica/Plantia Empires weapons: These two nations are masters of Laser technology and the more advanced laser weapons are quite common place. Instead of using the above rules for availability when buying weapons in these nations, class all auxillary, pistol and rifle laser weapons as being common, no matter what modes they use. Step Six: Abbreviate Weapon Now, for ease of use within the game when describing weapons, it is a good idea to abbreviate your weapon. Begin by giving your weapon a name and then inside brackets, using the slash/ mark to seperate the information, last the following information in this order: Weapon Size, Weapon Modes, Coolant Systems, No of powercells, Price and Availability. Here's an example for you: MQK Ind Zapcap (Pistol/SB,PF/ERCS/2/110/C) This tells us that the MQK Ind Zapcap is a Pistol, with Single Burst and Pulse Fire modes, it uses the Electronic Recycling Coolant System, can carry two powercells, costs 110 credits and is a common weapon. Note on the CIC and ACIC systems: If your CIC system has a magazine attached to it (See Capsule Instantaneous Coolant above) then add the magazine size as well after the CIC or ACIC designation as well in brackets, e.g. CIC(5). Power Cells and Power UsagePowercells are the batteries that Laser Weapons use to provide energy. As powercells are used for a variety of items, not just Laser Weapons, they are covered more indepth in miscellaneous items in the pricing guide. However, here we shall deal with the energy usage of a typical laser weapon. Your standard Powercell is assumed that once fully charged to hold a charge of 100%. Everytime you fire your weapon though, that charge will drop, depending on the size of the weapon and what mode it is being fired in. Use the following table to work out how much charge is lost everytime the laser is fired:
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