I have a completely self-contained turret can designed as a point-defense choice. Several focal arrays of smaller diameter, all the hardware each one needs behind it, power, fuel, and the gunner workstation. I don't recall the exact details (but I'll dig it up if you like) but the resulting rapid fire DMs were off the chart, for all that the range was 1-2-3. Not a turret to get close to if you were trying to board...
--- In , "Roger Malmstein" <starwolf@...> wrote:
>
> 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
>