Newbie question - beam weapons miss

Gratuitous Forum Gratuitous Space Battles
1

Hi,

I am still very new to GSB, so please forgive if this question is lame/old/pointless/whatever.

I would like to know what causes laser/beam weapons to miss. I understand that projectile weapons (rockets) are subject to jamming, but lasers? From the stats I see after battle, quite a high percentage of beam shots missed; what causes this? Distance? Enemy shields? Something different?

Thanks a lot,
Ondras

2

Most beams miss their targets because their tracking is not high (accurate) enough to follow the ship and hit it. Its kinda like using the main guns on a battleship to try hitting a torpedo boat. Sure you might land a hit if you fire for a long time, but you’re going to miss much more than hit with a low-tracking weapon against a fast-moving target.

3

Thanks for the explanation!

4

You’re probably getting a lot of misses from said beams shooting at fighters - the chances of hitting one are slim to none. Distance, as well as the size and speed of an enemy ship, are also a factor. Shooting at a farther, smaller and faster target rather than a slower, bigger target up close, will yield poorer accuracy.

I think.

5

It’s been said already, but yeah it’s probably your ships shooting at fighters.
Something I do (but I’m not sure if it’s stupid) is just remove the “attack fighters” order on my cruisers and most frigates. Then they’ll ignore them unless there’s nothing else left to shoot.

6

yes, that behaviour is annoying, when your “Finisher” cruiser unloads everything before time