Laser review and rebalance

Laser review and rebalance (perhaps more accurately known as laser nerfing) refers to practices created to rebalance laser weapons, specially in CBT (Classic BattleTech) tabletop play. The focus here is to reduce the laser's convenience and slightly degrade its raw power, while simultaneously presenting more options for its use.

Lasers are extremely efficient weapons, with the standard models not using ammo, not having disadvantages like running out of attacks, or ammo explosions. In addition they are very light and tonnage efficient, and can be very accurate and miss less than average. They also don't have minimum range problems. They don't require actuator removals when utilized on Omnimech's arms. Double Heat Sinks make Battlemechs and Omnimechs have a 20 heat per turn default base capacity, making the "heat generation" point very manageable if not moot. Even then, nearly all weapons generate heat and laser's heat generation often isn't significantly greater than others.

Comparative
Even if managing heat is a problem, Small Lasers for example produce half as much heat at the equivalent SRM-2, while costing half the tonnage, not requiring the extra slots and tonnage of carrying ammo, dealing the same average damage, and not being subject to explosions. They also can't be intercepted by AMS. An ER Medium Laser generates the same heat and damage than a Light PPC, weight three times less, occupies half the number of slots, and has the same number of hexes of effective range (with the Light PPC not being able to fire accurately in 3 hexes close, but having 3 extra range out far; quite possibly, a bad deal even in that).

This is all to say, lasers need to be nerfed to be balanced to other weapons. The only cases where lasers are bad is in vehicles because they lack double heat sinks and must mount a heat sink for each potential heat point; even then, this does not apply to Chemical Lasers.

Then, this is a list of stuff that can be used to nerf Lasers. Equipment is unreliable as it needs to be added on the drawing board and not a substitute for actual balancing, but anything is possible to combat the Laser threat.

Somewhat contrary to expectation, nerfing lasers also allows to buff them in other ways, thus making them a more varied and overall fun weapon.

Canon buffs
Incredibly or not, some things make lasers in canon actually even better. Targeting computers are best paired with lasers, and optional rules can even basically nullify the laser heat disadvantage on 'mechs.

Buffing equipment

 * Lasers are exceptionally good with Targeting Computers: Since the weight of a TC is computed (heh) in relation to the weight of the weapons applied, the exceptionally light Medium Lasers and Small Lasers are far off the best weapons to pair with it, giving them a -1 to hit and ability to aim sections, with negligible tonnage gain.

Buffing rules

 * A Laser AMS used as a weapon: Acts like a micro pulse laser with a maximum range of 1.
 * Any energy weapon (either Direct Fire or Pulse) can dial down its Damage Value: cutting back on heat generated. Before a controlling player makes a to-hit roll for an energy weapon attack, he can announce that he is “dialing back” the Damage Value. For each 1 point less of Damage Value, the weapon generates 1 less heat point than normal, to a minimum of 1 heat; regardless of whether a weapon’s Damage Value is reduced to 0, the weapon will always generate at least 1 heat. Ammo: Any energy  weapon  that  is  ammo-dependent  (such as a vehicle flamer, Plasma weapons and chemical lasers) cannot make use of this rule.

''This last optional rule is extremely good for some types of lasers. Put as an example the humble standard IS medium laser: Deals 5 damage generationg 3 heat. With this rule, it can deal 3 damage generating 1 heat - that is, 3/5 of damage (60%) for 1/3 of heat (33%). Using three of them, this gives us 9 damage for 3 heat, much better than a large laser or light PPC while weighting comparably or less!''

Equipment

 * Laser reflecting armor: Sadly, despite the topical name, the titular Armor is as good against PPCs and Flamers as it is against lasers (and even against Plasma Rifles and Plasma Cannons), thus not helping to reduce balance gaps previously mentioned. Worse still, this armor takes double damage from melee attacks. Considering lasers have no minimum range (not even the longest ranged of them), nothing prevents the laser boat from closing in and giving you a beating, unless you make your model purposelly agile to avoid this.

Buffing other weapons
The extra firing modes of autocannons explicitely note they are otherwise practically strictly inferior to lasers, thus those extra fire modes would attempt to balance it out. The extra firing options of PPCs bring them extra flexibility thus sort of replicate laser performance in some ways, like having no minimum range.
 * Autocannon Rapid Fire Mode: Any standard or light autocannon (not LB-X, Ultra or Rotary models) can be fired at double the standard rate as though it were an Ultra AC. This approach carries considerable risks. Follow the standard rules for a Rapid-Fire Weapon firing two shots (see p. 114, TW), with the following exceptions.The weapon’s arming circuitry fails on a To-Hit Roll result of 4 or less (rather than 2 or less). On a To-Hit Roll result of 2, the ammo feed jams, causing the rounds in the chamber to explode inside the barrel. This causes an effect similar to an ammunition explo-sion, but  inflicts  only  the  amount  of  damage  the  autocannon would normally inflict in one shot and does not cause any other ammo  to  explode.  The  autocannon  is  considered  completely destroyed (meaning players must mark off all of its critical slots). CASE keeps this damage from spreading to other locations, but the MechWarrior still receives two pilot hits.Double the heat generated by the specific weapon type used when firing in Rapid-Fire Mode.
 * Autocannon Multiple Targets Mode: Rather than firing at a single target, any type of autocannon can be “walked” across two targets close to one another. An LB-X autocannon firing a cluster shot and Ultra and Rotary autocannons firing at multiple targets are a special case.No matter what type of autocannon is being used, both targets must be in adjacent hexes and within range of the weapon. Deter-mine the to-hit number for both targets and make separate to-hit rolls against each target, using the higher (more difficult) of the to-hit numbers and adding a +1 modifier for firing at multiple tar-gets with a single shot. Note that this is not the secondary target modifier; that modifier does not apply to this type of attack unless multiple targets also are being attacked in the same phase. If the to-hit roll succeeds, the target is struck by a single hit that inflicts damage equal to half the normal damage done by the weapon (rounded down).For an LB-X autocannon firing a cluster shot, make a single to-hit roll against the highest to-hit number plus 1. If all damage is applied to the first target after a roll on the Cluster Hit Table, then no additional damage is applied to the second target. However, if some of the damage missed the target, use that “missed” Dam-age Value as the new number to roll on the Cluster Hit Table to determine what damage struck the second target. For example, a controlling player rolls a 7 on the Cluster Hit Table roll for an LB 10-X, resulting in six 1-point Damage Value groupings hitting the first target. That  leaves  4  damage  and  so  the  controlling  player would then roll on the 4 column of the Cluster Hit Table to see what damage is applied to the second target.For  Ultra  and  Rotary  autocannons,  make  a  single  to-hit  roll against the highest to-hit number plus 1. Then determine whether the designated number of shots fired hit a target. If only one shot hit, it will strike one of the targets—determined at random—with a single shot that does full damage. If two, four or six shots hit, one, two or three shots will strike each target at full damage. If three or five shots hit, one or two shots will strike each target; randomly determine where the other shot lands.When using this attack from a non-infantry unit against con-ventional infantry, treat the weapon as the next row above on the Non-Infantry Weapon Damage Against Infantry Table (see p. 216, TW). i.e. a Cluster (Ballistic) becomes a Direct Fire (Ballistic) attack.Players  can  fire  at  multiple  targets  in  rapid-fire  mode  (see above). Resolve damage as though the autocannon is a Rapid-Fire weapon firing two shots.
 * PPC Field Inhibitor Disengage: Nullifies minimum range of PPCs, but it is dangerous.
 * PPC Overcharge: Allows more damage, but generates more heat and damages the PPC.

Fanon nerfs
Each of these things only nerfs lasers quite slightly. Combine them together for the true laser-nerfing experience. Specially the optional rules (combining all the equipment in your unit is overkill and you will be vulnerable to other weapons). As none of these rules have official standing, they can be tweaked, enabled or disabled, by simple agreement before playing.

Equipment

 * Redshift Photon Deenergizer: Analog of the Blue Shield Particle Field Damper that reduces incoming damage from PPCs by half, but for lasers.
 * Spectrum Mirrorcoating: Reflects a Laser attack to a section back at the enemy.
 * Lightbend Armor: Provides optical camouflage along with laser protection.

Buffing other weapons

 * Fanmade extra rules for PPCs: Allows to make PPCs more versatile in relation to lasers.
 * Fanmade extra rules for PPC capacitors: A way to make capacitor-enhanced PPCs more competitive.
 * SLAP machinegun ammo: A way to make machine gun ammo not explode (yet deal less damage).

Laser-nerfing fan-rules
No less than seven laser-nerfing rules are listed, though each is quite moderate and even enabling all of them doesn't make lasers unplayable.

No paperwork rules
These rules are static, meaning you don't need to keep track of significant additional stuff.

Non-kinetic laser hits
 Damage dealt by lasers themselves doesn't add towards the 'mech check for falling if 20 or more damage was taken this turn when hitting opponents, since lasers have negligible kinetic force and work by just transmitting damage by heat. (Laser explosions to yourself still count as normal as that would be physical components, not photons.)

Laser damage falloff
This affects Small Lasers the most.  All lasers deal -1 damage in their Long range brackets and -2 damage in Extreme range brackets (if Extreme Range rules are appliable). This is due to dust, particles in the air and atmospheric interference reducing the effectiveness of the beam. The penalty doesn't apply in ambients without a significant atmosphere, such as outer space, (non-pressurized) orbit, or atmosphere-less aseroids and moons (such as Luna).

Laser distance focus
Lasers are a complex array of lenses. Thus they aren't calibrated to fire at any distance. The larger the laser is, the harder it is to focus at short distance.  Small lasers have a Minimum Range of 1, Medium Lasers have a Minimum Range of 2, and Large Lasers have a Minimum Range of 3 hexes. This also applies to ER versions. They can still fire within these brackets, but Minimum Range penalties apply. This makes lasers NOT be the bristling perfect complement for melee brawling (and anything else, really); SRMs will shine in that again, at least a little more... (the small/medium laser penalty can still be more than compensated by targeting computers in most circumstances, meh) This rule can replace Laser Lens Unalignement for no-note taking facilitation, as it is just a static debuff.

Note-requiring rules
These fanmade optional rules are more cumbersome as you need to take notes of them (if not included into an automated program).

Laser lens unalignement
This doesn't affect Small Lasers, thus balancing out the previous one.  All lasers excepting small-sized lasers of any type lose alignement after firing each time, which adds +1 to their minumum range each turn they are fired.

Assuming no minimum range originally: The first firing it is zero, the second firing it is already one, the third firing it is already two, etc. This means a +1 to-hit penalty for each hex within the minimum hex range of the originating unit because of the difficulty of aligning the lenses.

The lasers can be re-aligned, with each turn not firing the laser returning a -1 to the minimum range.

Laser lens defocus
This doesn't affect Small Lasers either.  All lasers excepting small-sized lasers of any type lose focus after firing each time, which gives a -1 to their short and medium ranges each turn they are fired. The range lost from short is converted to medium, the range lost from medium is converted to long - this does mean that using this rule and firing continously, eventually all ranges for the weapon will become "long range". This includes modifying the new long range attacks with the -1 damage penalties of laser scattering at long range, if that rule is enabled.

The laser component can be re-focused completely by not firing it in a turn.

Laser component explosions
 If lasers were fired last turn or this one, when critted and destroyed they explode dealing damage as an ammo explosion equal to their damage rating, and add as much heat as that damage rating (the damage rating isn't modified by things such as Photon Boosters or alternate firing modes). The damage can be mitigated by CASE. Explosions don't apply to Chemical Lasers and other ammo-using laser weapons. (Still, a Small Laser critted would deal to you 3 damage and 3 heat, and only if you used it... MG ammo is 400 damage!).

If you use a rare type of laser that already explodes (such as Improved Heavy Lasers), this is in addition to any damage from those rules. Even then, the laser explodes only sometimes -under your control if firing or not- will be dealing damage equal to a round. In contrast, the ammo explodes always, dealing damage to you equal to the entire damage potential during the entire game of the weapons that use it, and also costs tons and slots and puts a hard limit to your battlefield endurance. In other words, the turn of damage and extra heat is still much less punishing than using ammo.

Laser heat scaling
It is recommended this rule is enabled only in periods where Double Heat Sinks are available, as otherwise Single heat sinks will struggle too much with the increased load. This also hits small lasers the hardest, re-compensating for the two disadvantages that don't apply to them.  When firing, if the laser has already fired the previous turn, it generates +1 heat. In the third turn, it generates +2 heat, and so on.

If they are using Laser Insulators, the extra heat is instead replaced by an equivalent extra penalty to the Laser component burnout check (see below).

All penalties are cleared by spending just one turn without firing.

Laser component burnout
 When firing, if the laser has already fired the previous turn, it burns on a natural to-hit roll of 2. If it has fired in the previous turn, it is instead of 3 or less, and so on. All penalties are cleared by spending just one turn without firing.

Getting a roll equal or lower to the number burns out the system before it can fire, damaging its slot and disabling the weapon, instead of inflicting damage on the target. This burnout does not deal damage to your unit, even if laser component explosions are enabled. However, it does generate once again the heat that was generated by the weapon firing, including any modifiers (so burnout means double heat generated, no damage, and weapon destroyed).

Fanon Buffs
Applying the nerfing measures allows to add also some extra options for lasers without making them too overpowered. Five optional laser rules are added, which are made to enhance versatility and utility rather than raw performance.

Fan buff equipment

 * Rotating Barrel Lasers (RBL): Family of rapid-firing lasers that shoot 1-3 times each turn and are immune to the laser component burnout and laser heat scaling rules.
 * Advanced Laser Lenses Addon: 0.5 tons 1 crit component added to a laser; nullifies the Laser lens unalignement and Laser lens defocus penalties (for Small-sized lasers, it converts Long range into additional Medium range instead), and allows to target a section with low penalty. Incompatible with targeting computers.
 * Photon Energy Booster: A variable weight component that, when activated, makes lasers deal 50% more damage but generate double heat.

Laser Lock-on
 Lasers paired with Targeting Computers or fitted with an Advanced Lenses Addon can spend a turn "locking on" to an unblocked unit on LOS and in range. If so, if they fire at that unit during next turn, the attack gets a -3 bonus modifier to the to-hit target. Firing at any other target during that turn would however get a +1 penalty to the to-hit target instead, due to the necessary corrections in the prepared attack. The lockon bonus is only -1 if you make an aimed shot on the target.

The laser can't fire during the locking-on turn, but neither does it count as firing in it for the purposes of things such as Laser Burnout or Laser Lens Unaligment optional rules.

Laser Overloading
 Similar to a PPC, a laser can be overloaded to deal extra damage in an attack, though in this case, this always destroys the component. Small lasers deal 1d6-1 extra damage and heat generation, medium lasers deal 2d6-2 extra damage and heat generation, and large lasers deal 3d6-3 extra damage and heat generation. Overloading the laser generates causes a -1 penalty to any to-hit roll. It cannot be used on an aimed shot, or combined with an active Photon Energy Booster.

Laser Overloading also always triggers an additional Laser Burnout check that triggers on a 2 or less in the modified to-hit result; that is applying normally any modifiers to see the result (including the -1 to the roll from overcharging the laser); upon failing not only the weapon is destroyed (as it would normally be), but also, the full would-be damage of the attack is dealt to the firing section's Structure instead of the opponent.

Non-heat tracking units can overload their lasers, but will always receive direct damage to the structure of the section where the laser is mounted in replacement of the equivalent extra heat (and in addition to the possible overload-burn).

Laser sweeping
 Lasers can be fired in "sweep" mode. In this case, they generate an extra +1 heat, deal 33% less damage (.5 damage rounds down), but have a -1 to-hit modifier. The damage is randomly split between two random adjacent sections of the attacked unit, if it is not infantry. It does deal an extra 1d6-1 vs infantry if the laser didn't have an infantry bonus before. The damage substracted at start is dealt to the hex where the attacked unit is standing, if not an air unit. If the non-aerospace sweeping attack misses, 100% of the damage is dealt to the terrain on the hex. This firing mode is incompatible with an aimed shot and ignores bonuses from targeting computers. Non-heat tracking units can use sweeping lasers, but their damage reduction/damage dealt to ground is 50% instead of 33%. Sweeping lasers can be overloaded at the same time, in which case all of their bonuses and penalties stack; the overloading ones being applied first in the equation.

Laser IR-boosting setting
 Before combat, lasers can be calibrated into IR-boosting mode, thus generating more infrared -heat- output. This can't be changed during the combat itself, much like rapid-firing machineguns.

A laser in IR-boosting mode loses half its damage, rounded down, and converts that into projected heat. The heat projected loses 1 strenght for each hex beyond the first; this is due to the higher dispersion of the IR spectrum. So, a small laser that deals 3 damage normally would deal 2 damage and 1 heat at 1 hex range, but 2 damage and 0 heat beyond (there are no negative heat dealing values in this case). An IR-boosted ER large laser would deal 4 damage and 4 heat at hex 1, but just 4 damage and 1 heat at hex 4. This replaces the regular Laser Damage Falloff, which doesn't apply to IR-boosted weapons.

Missed shots in IR mode convert the heat into damage dealt at the hex where the targeted unit stands. The heat is also (re)converted to damage against non-heat-tracking units such as vehicles. (the + and - damage of Lens removal, Photon Booster, and other sources is calculated before IR % heat conversion.)

IR-boosted lasers are immune to Laser Heat Scaling, but always generate a flat +1 heat when firing, compared to their base heat rating.

Unfortunately, IR-boosted lasers which haven't been designed for this use (unlike IR laser projectors) always have a chance of laser burnout (see laser burnout rule), thus destroying themselves instead of firing. They start burning out on a 2 in their first turn firing, and increase to a three or less in the second turn, with each burning out more easily.

Laser Lens Unalignment and Laser Lens Defocus apply normally unless the laser has an attached Advanced Lens.

IR-boosted lasers can't use Overload or Sweep firing modes. However, the IR mode is compatible with targeting computers bonuses, advanced lenses and aimed shots, OR laser lens removal.

Laser Lens removal
Removing a laser lens means the raw unfocused beam is directed straight ahead with no chance of focusing or corrections. This makes them a no-frills brawling weapon, but their ranged capabilities suffer.  Only before combat, any laser weapon can get their focus lens temporarily removed. This can't be done while in combat.


 * Lenseless lasers don't benefit from Targeting Computers or Advanced Laser Lenses Addon, can't aim components, and can't use laser lockon.
 * However, they can be combined with Laser Sweeping. They are also compatible with Photon Boosters and, if not using it, can Overload. They can also be combined with IR-boosted lasers (the + and - damage of lens removal and other sources is calculated before IR heat conversion).
 * Lenseless lasers are immune to "Laser Lens Unalignement", never increasing their min range.
 * Lenseless lasers have an additional +1 to-hit penalty in Medium range, +2 in Long range, and +3 in Extreme ranges.
 * Lenseless lasers deal +1 damage in Short range, but -1 in Long and -2 in Extreme range (same as normal damage in Medium range) - as a second Damage Falloff. However, this damage falloff happens even if there is no atmosphere.
 * When Lenseless Lasers miss, if not using Laser Sweeping mode, the damage is dealt instead to the terrain in the first hex of the firing trajectory, with the +1 short range modifier.