Laser

**Lasers** are directed energy weapons that have light-speed projectiles that can be created to burn into an enemy target with very high accuracy, or to snipe pesky missiles and shells from the sky.

The reliability of lasers depends heavily on countermeasures – smoke and laser shields can greatly reduce AP-value, and with that damage dealt by lasers. However, they are still great against fast targets at range, as all shots arrive instantly (Advanced Cannon shots are comparatively slow and follow gravity, while Particle Cannon shots just bend around unpredictably if you stand back too far, and CRAM Cannon "fridges" are even slower than cannon shells). With enough parts, lasers can become very dangerous to anything not designed to counter them.

Each part in a laser changes the property of the laser by adding more power, allowing it to charge quicker, giving it armour-piercing qualities, increasing accuracy, or increasing aiming angle.

## Overview

* Require engine power rather than ammo to charge the laser system. Damage occurs by draining laser power from the laser system.
* Can be used both offensively and defensively against missiles, as well as APS-, or CRAM-shells.
* Very accurate, and shots arrive instantly – great against fast targets.
* Loses damage with range. More damage lost through water, less damage lost when using many Laser Optics-blocks
* Have a max range of 10000 meters no matter how many steering optics there are.
* Laser Transceivers allow the bulk of the laser to be built far away from where the laser is actually emitted.

## Minimal Laser

A minimal laser requires power, typically provided by Engines, plus the following:

* A Multipurpose Laser.
* A Laser Coupler.
* A Laser Cavity.
* A Laser Pump.
* For an offensive laser, a Laser Combiner and a Laser Steering Optics.
* For a defensive laser, a Laser Anit-Munition Defence. A offensive laser can be also used as a defensive laser against missiles when using a CIWS instead of a LWC.
	+ You will also need an AI with a functional Munition Warner. Alternatively or additionally passive radar or sonar, but that only works against radar-guided missiles or torpedoes respectively.

Note that without Frequency Doublers and Storage Cavities such a laser will not be very effective.

One possible layout for an offensive laser:

```
LSO
LCom
MPL
LCoup
LCav LPmp

```

## Components

* Multipurpose Laser: The root component of a laser.
* Laser Connector: Connects the following components: Multipurpose Laser, Laser Coupler, Laser Combiner, Laser Munition Defence, and Laser Transceivers.
* Laser Transceiver: Connects the same components as the Laser Connector, but over a distance. The sending Laser Transceiver must be pointed directly at the reciving Laser transceiver. There is no limit on range, and the connection can even pass through other blocks.

### Pulses

* Q Switch

Up to 4 Q Switches may be attached to a Laser Coupler. Using at least one Q Switch turns the laser from continuous to pulsed. The number of Q Switches determines how often a laser can discharge that Laser Coupler, and what percentage of the stored energy is discharged at a time. The damage dealt is proportional to the energy used.

### Energy

* Laser Cavity: Attach to a Laser Coupler. Multiple Laser Cavities can be connected in a line. Stores 250 units of laser energy.
* Laser Pump: Attach to sides of Laser Cavities. Produces 24 laser energy per second at the cost of 30 power. Also available as a 3m variant, making it easier to fill 3x3 spaces.
* Laser Destabiliser: Attach in a line to Laser Cavities. Causes the line to discharge 90% more energy at a time compared to base. Multiple Laser Destabilisers can be used with each being 90% as effective as the last.
* Frequency Doubler: Attach in a line to Laser Cavities. Increases the AP, depending on the number of pumps and total storage capacity. The more pumps, the smaller the AP-increase. Each 10,000 laser storage is counted as a single pump for this calculation (each frequency doubler add 400AP/number of pump blocks, more on 0Q lasers)

Energy is used to fire the laser. At base, 10% of stored energy is discharged per second.

The base range is 5.65m per damage. The final range is capped at 10 km.

### Damage

The damage per second of a laser with or without Q-Switches is found by taking the total length of laser cavity blocks with four pumps attached plus laser destabilisers, where L is the sum of laser destabilisers and laser cavities with four laser pumps, Q is the amount of Q-Switches, and the variable P is the most efficient length of laser cavities to be used within the length L alongside the corresponding amount of laser destabilisers (L-P)

To find the most efficient combination of laser cavities and laser destabilisers, find the maximum of the following equation using P as the variable:

Calculator including laser damage (as well as some other stuff). Up to date as of 09.09.2017 (most likely obsolete, as of 12/11/2018)

### Offensive lasers

* Laser Combiner: Emits an offensive laser.
* Laser Optics: Reduces attenuation (damage lost with range).
* Laser Steering Optics: Increases field of fire. Max field of fire reached if 1/4 of the optics are steering optics. Shorter optics have greater firing angle.
* Laser Cutter: projects a beam between two of these when they are placed opposite of each other. This beam will deal damage to anything that crosses through it, turning the laser into a melee weapon.

The inaccuracy is 0.05°. I.e. 0.09% of the range, about 1m at 1km range. Do note that actual inaccuracy will generally be greater, due to detection-errors.

### Munition Defence Lasers

* Laser Munition Defence (previously "Laser Missile Defence"). Complete system is typically called LAMS – Laser Anti-Munition System

No optics are necessary or usable with a Laser Munition Defence. Separately you will also need a Munition Warner connected to an AI Mainframe. No Local Weapon Controller is necessary for operation of this laser component, and can not be fired like a normal weapon by the user.

Alternatively, or additionally, it is possible to use Passive Radars or Passive Sonars to detect Missiles using active radar guidance and torpedoes respectively. This allows the LAMS to fight torpedoes *at all* (though damage is lost quickly through water), and radar-guided missiles from longer range. It is, however, recommended not to rely on passive radars, as many missiles will use other guidance-types.

The Laser Munition Defence has an inaccuracy of

0.05
∘

{\displaystyle 0.05^\circ}

. This gives it single-block accuracy out to about 1150 m. Against a missile with a cross section of one block approaching at constant speed, about 50% of all hits will occur within this distance, and about 75% within half this distance – The maximum active range is 500m but can be extended to 1000m. The active range, is the range at which it will begin to shoot down incoming detected munitions which can be changed with the Q menu on it. This however is not the range of the beam it self can travel.

## Countermeasures

Lasers lose damage with distance through water 20x faster than through the atmosphere. This allows other weapon systems to greatly outperform lasers in combat as long as substantial distance though water is present.

Smoke and Planar shields reduce the laser's AP-value by a percentage. You can use Frequency Doublers to increase the armor piercing value, reducing the amount of damage lost when facing minor defences.

## Other References

**From The Depths INSTANT Tutorial: Lasers & LAMS by GMODISM**, July 2022 - A short tutorial explaining the basics of laser weapons and LAMS

**From the Depths - Laser Tutorial 101** by Ohm is Futile, February 2021 - An introduction to lasers and their components. with a couple examples.