Chemical Lasers + ER

[I am Belch II]

Do you think it would be to out of the possibility crazy to make a modification to the Chemical Lasers to ER Chemical Lasers??
Maybe using 50% more ammo per shot and increase the ranges to Inner Sphere ER lasers.....not all the way to the Clan ER.

Just wanted to know trying to make units with Chemical Lasers like vehicles and equipment that don't use heat like that.
Don't want to go to munchy and start making pulse and other and PPCs of the like

[dgorsman]

I'd be more tempted to do heavy equivalents - more punch, less ammo per ton.

[RifleMech]

I don't know why both couldn't be possible.

[Retry]

Do you think it would be to out of the possibility crazy to make a modification to the Chemical Lasers to ER Chemical Lasers??

No, not at all.  The only difference between a chem laser and a normal laser is where the energy comes from (straight from the power-plant or from "ammunition" through an energy-producing chemical reaction).

Not only is it feasible to have an ER Chem laser, it's perfectly feasible to have a Chem Pulse Laser, an ER Chem Pulse Laser, and a Heavy Chem Laser.  You can even feasibly make a Chemical Blazer.

Don't want to go to munchy and start making pulse and other and PPCs of the like

I wouldn't worry too much about that.  The Chem Lasers are really IS guns in Clan's clothing.  There's a lot of words that can describe Chemical Lasers, but munchy ain't one.

[Hptm. Streiger]

There's a lot of words that can describe Chemical Lasers, but munchy ain't one.

No, not really. First I wanted to disagree but after some more thinking: it doesn't matter for the game if you use an XL fusion or a ICE in your vehicle. When it comes to campaigning the ICE driven vehicle with a chemical laser suffers by the need for ammunition but is cheaper.

Only when you are a special snowflake that wants to have "reasonable" costs for a highly efficient vehicle - the combination of FuellCellEngine and Chemial/Cartridge Whatver Energy weapon is hard to beat.

Oi and we need chemical lasers for IS advanced technology during the succession wars era (I get a FCE for my Goblin, now give me a large chemical laser so that I can keep the SRM)

[Retry]

No, not really. First I wanted to disagree but after some more thinking: it doesn't matter for the game if you use an XL fusion or a ICE in your vehicle. When it comes to campaigning the ICE driven vehicle with a chemical laser suffers by the need for ammunition but is cheaper.

Only when you are a special snowflake that wants to have "reasonable" costs for a highly efficient vehicle - the combination of FuellCellEngine and Chemial/Cartridge Whatver Energy weapon is hard to beat.

I've found the expenses of the chemical laser ammo often offsets the cost a lot.  At 30k C-Bills per ton (all versions), it's frequently cheaper to take the fusion engines and just accept you'll need power amps or heat sinks.  And if you're packing an array of Medium Chem Lasers, that's going to be a lot of ammo...

Oi and we need chemical lasers for IS advanced technology during the succession wars era (I get a FCE for my Goblin, now give me a large chemical laser so that I can keep the SRM)

Yeah.  Honestly, these lasers would have made much more sense being SW-era (or even earlier) IS weapons than Clan weapons.

I mean, what's the purpose of them for the Clans?  They're awful on Battlemechs.  They're passable on vehicles, but the Clans don't respect those very much.  On Protomechs, each heat sink is a quarter ton so the vastly superior ER Medium Laser is only 2.25 tons, and if you need a punch around the 1-ton range you're better served with Clan missiles...

[Daryk]

Fusion engines always being more efficient in the long term only reinforces your point.  The infrastructure necessary to support refueling/re-arming is VERY expensive over the long haul...

[RifleMech]

Chemical Lasers don't need power amplifiers or heat sinks when mounted on vehicles. That would allow the the more expensive fusion engines to be reserved for frontline units. If used defensively, one wouldn't have to worry about supply lines for fuel and ammo.

I do agree that Chemical Lasers would fit better in an earlier era. Maybe Succession Wars. Definitely during the Age of War, and earlier. I can see the Periphery Realms still using them during the Reunification War.   

[I am Belch II]

Thank you all for your responses. Im trying to make better Clan equipment and some mechanized units with some better equipment. Im not saying Chem Lasers are the weapon of all weapons but in proto mechs and vehicles might be a viable option.

[Intermittent_Coherence]

Realistically I don't see a problem with ER Chem Lasers. Through increased power input or more efficient focusing and collimation systems you're bound to get better output of some kind.

The real question is the game mechanics. ER Lasers are generally about the same size as their ER counterparts, so that part is handled. On the chemical ammunition side is where you have questions.

Judging by waste heat alone ER lasers need something like 50% increased power input, figure in damage potential(for the Clans at least, though I would not be surprised if less efficient IS systems are simply unable to boost damage for the same input) and it's probably closer to double or more.

So tweak the chemical make up to at least twice as expensive to make a more energetic reaction and/or simply just eat up the ammo at twice the rate at least.

[Retry]

Realistically I don't see a problem with ER Chem Lasers. Through increased power input or more efficient focusing and collimation systems you're bound to get better output of some kind.

The real question is the game mechanics. ER Lasers are generally about the same size as their ER counterparts, so that part is handled. On the chemical ammunition side is where you have questions.

Judging by waste heat alone ER lasers need something like 50% increased power input, figure in damage potential(for the Clans at least, though I would not be surprised if less efficient IS systems are simply unable to boost damage for the same input) and it's probably closer to double or more.

So tweak the chemical make up to at least twice as expensive to make a more energetic reaction and/or simply just eat up the ammo at twice the rate at least.

The way I had handled it when I was experimenting with custom Chem Lasers was that I added the heat and the damage of the base laser to get a number representing "energy input", and ammunition was based off that number, with higher "energy inputs" corresponding to less ammo.