Ok those of us why played Mech Warrior 3 and 4 know there is a Drastic Difference between Pulse lasers in the two, In MW3 Pulse Lasers Were like normal lasers but could keep a Continuous Stream of energy out for a Long time and move it around, In mw4 Pulse Lasers sent out a Few short bursts of energy and could in short order follow up with another and another, My question is on the technical side witch Game got it right? The Extended Stream of Continuous energy, or the Small Bursts of energy that could be rapidly repeated? or are nether right >.> CBT buff's out there or anyone who knows please Reply.

I dont think MW4 is right. It is impossible (in physics) for ANY lazer to have the appeareance of the pulse lazers of mw4. Lazers can only be one CONTINUOUS beam. What would be more correct would be a raid burst of 3-4 shots during 0.5 secs, with a reload time of a normal lazer... something like *powpowpowpow*rechage*powpowpowpow*, with the appearance of the normal lazers.

And normal lazers should be like MW3 pulse lazers: one beam that lasts for a while, and forces you to remain on target. It just shouldnt last as long as MW3's pulse lazers - 0.5 secs would be enough, imho...

Yes i like the MW3 Pulse Lasers more, You Can shoot for a good 5 or 10 Seconds with one Laser and Burn the heck out of an Area of a mech. As for CBT rules i would think MW3 got it More Correct(it is Easier to hit a mech with a Beam that moves than one that hits one point and stops damage)

Like Shiva said, MW3 is much more like CBT rules. Then again, MW3 has so many things that are more like CBT rules than 4. If the AI and storyline were better, I would call it the best BT game of all. As it stands, I think 2 still holds that honor (less accuracy, but better story).

Neither are correct.

The pulse lasers in MW3 last too long, and the pulse lasers in MW4 are physically impossible.

i think neither got it right. i'm going with shiva's view that it should be several single coherent shots of laser one after the other within a short period of time.

half-life gauss gun anybody? k maybe thats a bad analogy. but you get the point right?

Just to bring up actual "reality" from the game universe, re-read the original description of pulse lasers from 'Blood Legacy'.

They're described as several repeated short-duration blasts, allowing some time for the cloud of vaporized armor raised by each to dissipate before the next one strikes, instead of burning into it and having part of the beam scattered by it.

LOL the Half Life Gauss gun was a cool Weapon :) Alawys loved to shoot through walls :)

What about MechWarrior 2?! Did anyone even think of that game? i liked pulse lasers in that game by far the best, and they seem to be the medium you guys are talking about, a 'volley' of few shots that have a slightly faster recharge rate than a normal laser. I was much younger when I played that game, so my memory could be off a bit, so maybe I am incorrect. ::chuckles:: If I remember correctly I went through the whole game using Medium Pulse Lasers and ERPPCs almost exclusively.

As mentioned, the novels and Battletech source material indicate that the pulse lasers are short bursts. Lasers are NOT continuous-burn, but would still last for less than a second each.

If you wanted a real-life example, look at the "chemical lasers" planned for missile defense. Volitile chemicals are used to generate bursts of light at intensities conventional batteries cannot. They last very briefly, but melt through a missile shell nearly instantaneously. The beam does not need to hold on target for even a tenth of a second.

Now, given that, the game lasers are horribly "non-realistic"
1) Even if made by visible spectrum light, the lasers would only be visible by the light given off by the superheated air it passes through.
2) If it did appear, it would look like a continuous line between cannon and target- a pulse laser would appear as a rapidly blinking line. Light travels so fast that it would appear to span these distances instantaneously.

The time-to-target was always my biggest peeve. You don't need to "lead off" a target with lasers. If you can see it, your lasers will reach it before it moves.

Shiva got it right for CBT, they spat out 3 short bursts and then recharged. Did less damage than a regular laser, but increased the chances to hit.

So its sort of like the Mw4 Pulse Laser as far as CBT goes? A few Short Bursts....then Recharge?

No, gren.. more like this a MW4 small pulse lazer firing (ya know it shoots 3 times in one second), then a 5 second recharge delay, then you can shoot again.

Something like this:

POWPOWPOW-------------------------POWPOWPOW
|___________|____________________|__________|
..........|..............................|.................................|
1 Second...................5 Seconds...................1 Second

got it?
The in-game appearence would be like a MW4 Lazer - one continuous beam that "connects" to the target instantaniously, and lasts 0.2 secs.

The normal lazers would be just like the MW3 Pulse lazers, but last ony 0,5 to 1 full second, and still look like a continuous beam that "connects" to the target instantaniously. Actually the ONLY way to differeciate between a Pulse and non-pulse would be to look if it fires very rapidly (3-4 times in ONE second), followed by a 5 sec recharge.

I think I'll do a animated .gif, and post it - its gonna have to wait till I get home, though.

Actually, they did MORE damage and had a BETTER chance to hit, but produced more heat and had a significantly shorter range.

I've often heard them likened to a laser "shotgun".

The MW4 lasers are incorrect...you have to lead in MW4 and you can see the dashed beam like this: weapon|- - - - - - -|target.

In all honesty, the pulse lasers would flash so quickly that there would be little discernable difference between them and standard lasers....perhaps the beam (assuming the beam was strong enough to ionize the air and become visible) would appear to flash VERY quickly, like a stobe light on maximum x10000, but it would be, as I said, very difficult to tell.