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So I was looking at the stats for the Plasma Beam Cannon and it got me to wondering why this can’t be bought and equipped and what is the reason?

if we look at the stats

Concussion Impulse Generator
Range - 3465
Shield damage - 7845
hull damage - 2615
Bullet Speed - 420
class - M
vol - 25

Plasma Beam Cannon
Range - 5854
Shield damage - 7182
hull damage - 2700
Bullet Speed - 10644
class - XL
vol - 120

We can see that the Plasma Beam Cannon has stats roughly equivalent to that of the Concussion Impulse Generator, now obviously Plasma Beam Cannons have much more range and the bullet speed is much faster because its a beam weapon but in terms of damage output both should do roughly the same damage per minute so given that this is clearly a corvette level weapon and should therefore be equipable on corvettes and bigger, why then can this not be bought and equipped on any ship that can use Concussion Impulse Generators ?

obviously the stand alone Plasma Beam would need its range reduced to around 4km and its ware class reduced to M and its volume reduced to around 35 to 40 to bring it in line with Concussion Impulse Generator but with these changes I cant see any valid reason for not implementing these at stand alone weapons which players can buy and equip on there ships

development time or the lack there of doesn't seem like a valid reason because if this was something Ego simply didn't have time to finish then they could have patched in incomplete features in one of the patches

performance concerns don't seem like a valid reason because even on my relatively mediocre computer I can have around 50 laser towers firing at once before I start to get serious performance issues and that's with the game settings on max

Balance issues also don't seem like valid reason because Plasma Burst Generators are way more Overpowered than Plasma Beams could ever be, there is no way in hell I should be able to take down capital ships in a Mamba but I've done just that, in my mamba I have taken out Xenon J's with just 4 Plasma Burst Generators as well as the Paranid carrier ship that guards dukes haven and in my hyperion I've taken out the Valhalla with Plasma Burst Generators and I could probably take the Valhalla with my mamba to if it had more weapons energy so that completely blows away the balance argument.

so with the 3 main reason that are usually cited when someone asks a question like discounted I'm curious what is the reasoning behind starting to implement beam weapons and then failing to finish ?

also how would you go about adding Plasma Beam cannons to the the List of purchasable ware at laser tower factories so that these can be bought

PBCs can be obtained (deviously) in X3AP and can be fitted to a few types of ship.

For X3TC, see this thread.

Alan Phipps wrote: ↑

Thu, 26. Nov 20, 11:36

PBCs can be obtained (deviously) in X3AP and can be fitted to a few types of ship.

For X3TC, see this thread.

yes I know about obtaining Plasma Beam Cannons in AP but I wasn't asking about AP I was asking about TC and the reason as to why Ego never finished implementing beam weapons, because as I already mentioned the commonly cited reasons don't stack up and also why when Plasma Beam Cannons are clearly a corvette level weapon in terms of fire power they are not equipable on the majority of corvettes and bigger the same way CIGs are I also read that post you linked to and it didn't answer either of these questions.

as to beam weapons being experimental again that argument simply doesn't stack up either because clearly at least in the case of Plasma Beam Cannons they have reached a production stage or you wouldn't be able to get laser towers and it and it would take very little effort to remove the laser tower casing so that the weapon its self could be mounted to ships.

so like I said I'm curious as to Ego's reasoning behind this and if they changed there mind about implementing beam weapons they why not remove them from the game completely

".. I wasn't asking about AP I was asking about TC .." Sorry, my crystal ball was a bit misted up that morning.

Whatever the reasons may have been back then, X3TC is no longer supported with further development and so such things in it won't be changing. Logically, the 'development' of beams in X3 would have moved on with the X3AP era which saw differences such making PBC and PALC more available and where they proved quite effective mounted on ships such as the Pirate Carrack and the Split Pteranodon. I don't really know what else you want to hear.

I suspect that the X2/X3 single cpu core game engine from the XP OS era was just not up to handling too many beams on typical gamers' systems of that time.

Egosoft always had a couple of player-centric design decisions in the games. A powerfull ship (Hyperion, Springblossom) defying all balance logic for example - only reason they are like they are is to satisfy the player. So they may have just made the PBC rare on purpose as "one of a kind" thing. After all, the unfocused jump drive needed something that could be gained from it. PBC and Aran are two things worth getting.
Beam weapons are extremely strong, because of their extremely high hit propability. Their on paper stats might be similar to CIG, but actual damage in practice is magnitudes higher compared to CIG.

At time of TC and AP development, Egosoft was half of the brain occupied with what was to become XR (based on what i heard) - so it also might have just been forgotten initially, and then they just rolled with it. In AP they forgot to add the Argon Lotan - even though they recieved the model. They added it later in a patch after i reminded them, that they had the model

The Plasma Beam Cannon is the lasertower weapon, and has been in the game since at least X2. It was never designed to be put on a ship initially.

So the balance of the weapon is based on the lasertower, not on any ships that might be able to mount it.

Thier compatibility on ships were mostly added by modders, as were the other beam weapons (ie the XTM modders who helped with TC)

oh damn, i totally confused them with the laser beam weapon (PALC?) you can get for the split panther in TC... touche