Laser tactics

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Lave Academy
home of the Supreme Savants
of the School of Strategic Studies

Laser combat tactics

Lasers are the most common kind of combat equipment. There are four kinds of laser - pulse, beam, military and mining. Although mining lasers pack a powerful punch, their cycle time is too slow for combat use and so will not be discussed here.

The different kinds of combat laser

The Pulse Laser is the cheapest and most basic kind of combat laser; they are really only any good for ships that never go to dangerous systems. They are just about powerful enough to discourage opportunists from robbing you of your cargo, but that's about it. They have a very slow cycle time which only compounds the problems of being low powered. Pulse lasers have a maximum range of 12,500 metres. The only advantage of pulse lasers is they don't heat up very quickly, so you can almost fire them all the time without worrying about heat build up.

For a serious combateer or a trader who visits more dangerous worlds, the Beam Laser is more appropriate. This laser is not much more powerful than the pulse laser, but instead of firing in short pulses followed by a long quench time, the beam laser fires in a continuous beam as its name suggests. Beam lasers have a maximum range of 15,000 metres. The weapon itself is made up of 150 laser tubes which are fired together. A power pack augments the ship's power and keeps a continuous flow of high wattage current running to the laser tubes so there is no risk of fade out when other demands are made on a ship's main power unit. They do generate more heat, and when a certain limit is reached must be allowed to cool. The thermal cut-out is automatic, and will degrade the weapon to 'pulse' mode when thermal limits are reached so the weapon is still of some use when hot.

The Military Laser, despite the marketing hype, is nothing more than a beam laser with additional laser tubes. Consequently, its wattage is much higher - and so is its propensity to overheat. Like the beam laser, the thermal cut-out degrades firing mode gracefully to pulse mode when the weapon nears thermal limits. Military lasers have a maximum range of 30,000 metres. The military laser will destroy small ships like the Adder in less than two seconds - small ships have very little defence against a ship wielding this powerful weapon.

Usage

Lasers are extremely simple to use - line your target up in the targeting box, and fire. However, to be effective you need finesse. Follow this advice to get the most out of your laser, regardless of type:

  • Don't pull the trigger (particularly with joysticks, trackball controllers or mice), squeeze it instead. This will make you less likely to jerk the controls and move the targeting reticule off the target.
  • Combat is stressful, but take care to breathe evenly - again to reduce the chance of jerking the targeting reticule off the enemy ship. They say Religion helps - try meditating on the The Pool of Pellucid Placidity. Others swear by Ebortsa's lucky charm.
  • Only fire when you are sure your target is in proper position - especially with military lasers. Heating your lasers up firing into empty space is guaranteed to result in your laser overheating when you really need it and you actually have the target properly lined up. As soon as you see the target drift out of the sights, stop firing.
  • For keyboards since v.1.77 (ie with a functioning control key) and for controllers that support precision mode: use it - especially for distant targets. You should normally be in precision mode when firing.
  • Consider fitting aft lasers and practising combat with your aft view. An aft laser can help you out of a sticky situation when your main weapon overheats.
  • If you are making a pre-emptive strike on another ship, make absolutely sure the ship is properly in the target reticule before firing. Nothing gives away the element of surprise like a shot across the bows when you really meant to hit.

Rear Lasers

There are two OXPs which help with aiming the rear laser at targets.

Side Lasers

I did find that I learnt how to use my side lasers in close combat through trying to learn how to use turrets. I'd never been able to get the hang of them until I'd changed my flying style to adjust to turret use. Then something seemed to click and side lasers made sense.
(Mauiby de Fug (2010))

The "centre of the roll" seems to be not equal with the "centre of your view" which looks a bit strange.

Moreover if your ship is not stopped then even a stationary target will always move sideways from your crosshairs due to your ship moving forwards: which looks like sideways movement in the side views, so you must constantly roll and pitch again.

Try practicing the side aim during movement on the navigation buoy first (but don't shoot unless you want a criminal record!) Asteroids make good practice targets.

Note that this is one of the player advantages over NPCs in the Vanilla game: you get extra speed, the Torus Drive, separate fore and aft shields, yaw, and side lasers. They get none of this, unless you add oxps which even out the balance (see Cheating for a list of these).

If you dislike the "roll" in side views then use the yaw controls ("," and "." keys) instead of the roll controls. See Roll vs Yaw crusades for more details on changing yaw & roll.

Combat Manoeuvers

  • The Barkanion Bounce: Barkanioth Sidereas, the Supreme Savant of the Lavean Academy's School of Strategic Studies, developed a method of swirling or looping combined with continual changes of velocity, thus making it almost impossible for the enemy to hit him as he was closing with them.
  • The Wrogers Writhe: Wrogers, the renowned reptilian Elite pilot from the antipodes of Riarribi, perfected the technique of performing a corkscrew approach towards the enemy using Witchfuel Injectors (thus ensuring that their laser blasts miss) until behind them, then spinning on a coin (at greatly reduced speed) and turning and strafing them. Initial missile fire could be easily ECM'd as they would be firing their missiles facing away from Wrogers, giving him more time to react.
  • Manfred's Manoeuver: The sun blinds your enemies in the same way that it blinds you. But if they are behind you (and you have a rear-mounted laser) ...
  • The Stellar Bake: If outnumbered, head for the sun (keeping the enemy close by). Enter the corona until your temperature hits the red line, then turn 180 degrees and engage your witch-fuel injectors. They will probably bake to death.
  • The Ahrumian Arrest: When you’re close to an enemy of comparable speed and both are circling around each other at high speed. The best way to break out of this is to slow down; the enemy will end up further away from you, and becomes easier to aim at (because his movements have a smaller arc distance from your perspective). Adalbert Ahrumias was an early Supreme Savant at the Lave Academy, a couple of generations ago.
  • Dybal's Defensive Barrel Roll: Commodore Dybal perfected an over-ride mechanism for his Astrogation Console allowing an attacked pilot to relax once the lasers start overheating and the shields are being depleted. To evade enemy lasers, roll & pitch simultaneously, which makes the ship spiral. Commodore Dybal's Barrel Roll equipment allows automatic performance of this manoeuver. Commander Hiran recommends installing Auto-ECM to enable automatic obliteration of inimical incoming missiles which might inhibit enjoyment of a gin & tonic/decent cup of broken Orange Pekoe tea.
  • Interstellar Barrel Roll: This is a hyperspace jump executed while barrel rolling. It forces a misjump that lets you end up in interstellar space. Only an option if meeting thargoids is better than facing your current threat.

Note for Elite players

The Manfred Manoeuver above only works for Oolite, not 8-bit Elite. Sorry!

Note for FE2/FFE players

This is pretty jolly useless for the Newtonian combat of FE2/FFE! Look here instead.

Tips from an old, bold pilot - and there ain't many of them

If you can't hit your targets consistently with a Beam Laser, you'll probably be worse off with a Military Laser. You can't afford to fire a Military Laser into deep space. Finish your training at Lave before setting off and make your old Pa proud.
Get good with the Beam Laser before upgrading. And although I intend to leave you a tidy sum, don't do the dumb-rich-kid mistake of putting a Military Laser in a small ship. The power you need for shield regeneration will be running the laser and you've got to remember your target's pals are going to be shooting at you too.
Rear lasers are not an option. When you're running to save your skin - and you will some day - you'll be glad of scaring off or even taking out one of that gang of pirates that's chasing you. You won't do that unless you've learned how to aim and fire using the rear laser. There's no shame in running away, boy. No shame at all.
Believe it not, you too can shoot and destroy missiles, with practice. I've even seen these cute blue slimy frogs shoot the tail-fins off a hard-head - that's an ECM Hardened Missile to you son.

Found in a pile of notes marked "Advice to send young Timmy" in a burned-out Fer-de-Lance drifting off Ceenbion.

BB threads

Equipment/OXPs

A range of OXPs which assist with laser combat/dogfighting can be found through the pages linked to Oolite Equipment. Or see:

Other advice pages

  • How do I ... dock / succeed in trading / win a fight / configure my controller/joystick etc
  • Oolite Tactics has a long list of OXP options and a couple of essays.
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