Boson Lance
Boson Lance | |
---|---|
Type | Main Gun |
Available From | ZYA CUB |
Fitted To | Small and Medium Ships |
Role | Sniper |
Required License | Military License (+10) |
In-game Description
The Split Boson Lance fires a single high speed projectile at medium range. To deliver its full damage potential, pilots are required to charge the weapon for a brief moment. The initial rapid heat generation nearly overheats the weapon, but it starts cooling down even if the pilot holds the shot instead of triggering it. This allows pilots to release a preloaded shot from the cooled-down weapon, enabling pilots to shoot twice. Attempting to shoot when the allowed heat generation would be exceeded, will trigger the safety mechanism, resulting in the Boson Lance overheating without firing. As an additional limitation, the weapon is static and requires pilots to turn their ship to aim, forgoing the automatic target tracking that is available on other weapons. The Boson Lance sees most use in fighting medium-sized ships, and when destroying the surface elements of capital ships.
The Boson Lance was invented relatively recently, by the Split brothers Ko t'Pa and Fyi t'Pa. With the reconnection of the Zyarth Patriarchy to the Commonwealth, the Patriarchy acquired its blueprint and refined it for mass production.
The most notable feature of the Mk2 variant is that it doubles the damage output.
Tactical Overview
The Boson Lance is the Split version of the Mass Driver and could be considered a sidegrade.
It offers a slightly increased damage output at the cost of reduced range. Otherwise, the two weapons are pretty much identical.
As with the Mass Driver, this is a highly impractical and overpriced weapon and shares all the downsides.
Update 7.10 has given this weapon minimal tracking. The gun can only aim in a small square area, and you must still move the entire ship to aim the weapon, which makes it real hard to use in a fast dogfight.
The DPS is still lacking, and capital ships aren't viable targets.
Also note that because of how the heat mechanic works, the Boson Lance's cooldown time gets multiplied for each gun you use. Using 2x Boson Lance Mk2 increases the cooldown time to 29 seconds. 3x to 43 seconds, and so on.
Making this weapon work is very difficult, and the result is generally disappointing. There are much better choices out there, and all of them will outperform the Boson Lance in damage output, cost-effectiveness, and practicality.
Advantages:
- Perfect accuracy
- Extremely fast projectile
- Long range
Disadvantages:
- Minimal tracking. The entire ship has to be maneuvered to aim
- low damage per second
- Extremely high initial heat generation. Can only fire one shot
- Extremely slow heat dissipation and therefore rate of fire
- Extremely expensive weapon. Only the Mass Driver and Meson Stream are more expensive
- Damage per shot is not sufficient to offset the drawbacks, needing multiple hits to destroy even light fighters
Specifications
Small Mk1 | Small Mk2 | Medium Mk1 | Medium Mk2 | |
Damage Per Second | 107 | 206 | 171 | 331 |
Damage Per Shot | 1875 | 3000 | 3000 | 4800 |
Time For Full Firing Cycle | 17.5s | 14.5s | 17.5s | 14.5s |
Reload Time | 1.5s | 1.2s | 1.5s | 1.2s |
Charge Time | 0.1s | 0.1s | 0.1s | 0.1s |
Projectile Speed | 10000 m/s | 10000 m/s | 10000 m/s | 10000 m/s |
Maximum Range | 5000m | 5000m | 7000m | 7000m |
Initial Heat | 8000 | 8000 | 8000 | 8000 |
Heat Dissipation Per Second | 500/s | 600/s | 500/s | 600/s |
Maximum Damage Until Overheat | 1500 | 3000 | 2400 | 4800 |
Cooldown Delay When Overheating | 4s | 3s | 4s | 3s |
Reactivates At After Overheating | 1000 | 1000 | 1000 | 1000 |
Construction Cost
Universal Build Method
Small Mk1 | Small Mk2 | Medium Mk1 | Medium Mk2 | |
Credits | 158.471 - 332.869 | 839.148 - 1.693.145 | 299.375 - 603.733 | 1.181.388 - 2.375.880 |
Energy Cells | 29 | 748 | 29 | 1130 |
Weapon Components | 82 | 296 | 102 | 415 |
Advanced Electronics | 19 | 78 | 49 | 112 |
Advanced Composites | 68 | 115 |