In those cases lasers are limited to TL*50Mj of effect you often end up with
a lot of spare space within the mount.
So, what to do with this spare volume?
One thing is to mount an integral powerplant. Good for those low tech ships
that want high tech weapons.
Secondly, mount more arrays to increase the power.
It is basically two ways the laser may be treated.
1) As a gatling gun.
However, I can't see any benefit for this as just increasing the ROF
decreases the difficulty. Unless adding more arrays gives the opportunity to
do more attacks. However as TL increases there is possible to add even more
arrays, which can get into the hundreds depending on TL and effective short
range. A turret making several hundred attacks will take ages to resolve.
2) Shotgun
I find this more likely as if you got the space, add more arrays to increase
the overall effectiveness. Or else it is a waste of space.
However, this will take the laser back where the original problem starts. A
laser lance outperforms a meson gun at the same volume and TL.
However, we can fix this a bit more easier than the gatling option.
The effect is reduces a certain percentage based on range due to the
difficulty to focus several arrays on the same spot. A little deviation in
either targeting or cyncronation of the firing will affect the end result
Any thoughts?
--
Roger Malmstein
www.travellerfreeport.com