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[Sutopia]

Got this idea from my university's optics class  

The lasers are mostly Gaussian beam by nature of how they're made.
Gaussian beam actually diverges on distance, which I assume that as a reason of having an actually "distance" for laser(energy) weapons.

There exists a focus on every Gaussian beam where the energy density is highest, which should be highest damage of laser weapons for the high pressure it gives to the target, but this is obviously not reflected in current game mechanics.

So, we can make a hullmod that shapes the laser.

Without the hullmod the laser deals original damage pattern as how they perform now, for most laser can be quite "wide" that slows the diverge of beam significantly, generating a relatively smooth patter of energy density.

Adding the hullmod applies a focus FOR ALL NON-PD LASER. I'd say the focus at about 30%~40% of max range. Near the focus, the DPS is significantly increased, while on max range the DPS is reduced.

For instance, let's set focus at 40% max range.
The damages scaling can be:
0~40%range:(80%+1.5*(range %))*original DPS
40%~100%range:(200%-1.5*(range %))*original DPS
that makes max range only 50% of original DPS, bad for kiting, but reward you going for a closer distance to score good damage of 140%. Of course the damage-distance distribution can be adjusted to balance things out, this is just an example.

[Morgan Rue]

Hard Flux on beam weapons like tac lasers = nope. Sorry, but Speed + Range + ability to overwhelm shields and get through armor = almost certainly overpowered. Being able to kite forever while also inflicting damage with no risk to yourself is rather silly. And most high tech ships are fast. I personally find kiting forever much less compelling than using more powerful burst weapons, like Phase Lance, with more risk to myself. This hullmod might be reasonable if it decreased the range of said beam weapons significantly to not allow for kiting and was incompatible with advanced optics, or if it did not generate hard flux.

Imagine this hullmod on a Sunder using a High Intensity Laser(Large HE Beam) and two Graviton Beams with Aug. Engines and all the +range things. The Sunder would never get caught and be capable of killing pretty much anything.
Even this hullmod in combination with just Ion Beams would be silly, as the Ion Beams would slowly build up hard flux and disable enemy systems as the flux built up.

[Sutopia]

Hard Flux on beam weapons like tac lasers = nope. Sorry, but Speed + Range + ability to overwhelm shields and get through armor = almost certainly overpowered. Being able to kite forever while also inflicting damage with no risk to yourself is rather silly. And most high tech ships are fast. I personally find kiting forever much less compelling than using more powerful burst weapons, like Phase Lance, with more risk to myself. This hullmod might be reasonable if it decreased the range of said beam weapons significantly to not allow for kiting and was incompatible with advanced optics, or if it did not generate hard flux.

Imagine this hullmod on a Sunder using a High Intensity Laser(Large HE Beam) and two Graviton Beams with Aug. Engines and all the +range things. The Sunder would never get caught and be capable of killing pretty much anything.
Even this hullmod in combination with just Ion Beams would be silly, as the Ion Beams would slowly build up hard flux and disable enemy systems as the flux built up.

The setting of focus is to prevent kiting, you only make good damage at a moderate range.
At max range the DPS is nerfed and you do not receive the additional damage bonus.

[Gothars]

The problem is that if you deal even a little kinetic damage at high range, that enables you to kite an enemy. I.e., to stay out of his range and slowly whittle him to death.  Also, it's hard to judge were the middle of your beam is, it would require some kind of indicator.

Maybe this would be more suitable for a entirely new weapon.

[Sutopia]

The problem is that if you deal even a little kinetic damage at high range, that enables you to kite an enemy. I.e., to stay out of his range and slowly whittle him to death.  Also, it's hard to judge were the middle of your beam is, it would require some kind of indicator.

Maybe this would be more suitable for a entirely new weapon.

modified OP to make things clear
IMO 30%~33% of max range as focus might be good, 50% might be OP
this will make laser gameplay more tactical and make it compatible with mixed ballistics.

or just eliminate additional damage at high range, say , focus at 30%, the additional damage degrades until 60%, and more than that deal no additional damage

For the above case, simply make additional visual effect for the additional damage range should be quite enough to indicate the dangerous range.

[TJJ]

OP makes no mention of the hull mod causing beams to deal hard flux, so I'm not sure where that complaint originates?

It's an interesting idea, though the rather convoluted & unclear explanation would need to be improved.

I think gothars is right though; better realised as an independent weapon. (Also easier to balance that way)

[Sutopia]

OP makes no mention of the hull mod causing beams to deal hard flux, so I'm not sure where that complaint originates?

It's an interesting idea, though the rather convoluted & unclear explanation would need to be improved.

I think gothars is right though; better realised as an independent weapon. (Also easier to balance that way)

Kinetic = hard flux
most beam weapon deal soft flux due to energy damage atm and that's not gonna tear well-shielded target

[Megas]

No standard beam weapon hits for hard flux.  Kinetic does not always mean hard flux.  Graviton beam does kinetic damage, but still always hits for soft flux.  Also, non-beam weapons that fade and hit past maximum range does soft flux too.

[Sutopia]

No standard beam weapon hits for hard flux.  Kinetic does not always mean hard flux.  Graviton beam does kinetic damage, but still always hits for soft flux.  Also, non-beam weapons that fade and hit past maximum range does soft flux too.

oh wow I didn't notice that
then making some extra kinetic damage for beam isn't a bad idea at all

[intrinsic_parity]

I think it would be more interesting to just scale the damage based on range, i.e. you do 100% damage at focus point, and damage decreases out to max range where you do zero damage, you would probably have to increase max range a little, but I like the idea of having a higher max damage that can only be used by engaging at close range. Also probably necessary to have some visual cue to help the player understand the mechanic, like having the beam be brightest at the focus point, and get dimmer further from it. This would be a much more drastic change, but it could be a cool mechanic

[Megas]

Beams that fade-out would make weak-ish beams even worse, especially for PD (where Vulcan and Flak reign supreme), unless the fade occurs beyond maximum range like non-beams already do.  Damage fade within range would make the beam (or whatever) unreliable, and the game does not need anymore incentives for ships to get closer simply to fight effectively.

[Morgan Rue]

Apologies, interpreted wrong, thought that it would build up hard flux at maximum range. Limiting the range at which it can build up hard flux fixes the issue I had with this hullmod. Cool idea, but unfortunately Alex isn't likely to add this anytime soon, as he likes to focus on a single subject (right now, exploration, after that, probably stations).

[Megas]

I seriously doubt Alex will ever add hard flux damage to standard beams.  (There are few mods that add beams that hit for hard-flux.)

One possible reason is AI cannot deal with (or does not know how to defend against) continuous hard-flux build-up from beams.  AI will keep shields up literally to the point of overload.  Since no standard beam hits for hard flux, this problem is not relevant.  It does not matter how much hard flux beams will hit for.  If a beam does even a single point of hard flux damage, and beam range is long enough, the beam ship can kite, overload, and kill.  Does not matter how long it takes when the goal is victory at any cost.

Without hard flux, beams are only good at three things:  Zapping missiles (if your ship cannot use Vulcan or Flak), zapping unarmored targets like fighters and Hounds, and simply poking AI enough to force it to keep shields up.  In next release, AI may get smarter and poking it with a beam to force shields to stay up may not work anymore (and mounting a missile rack to threaten burst damage might take over that role).  Occasionally, you get exceptions like all-beam Paragon being able to kill most ships with beams, three Graviton beam Eagle killing frigates, or focus-fire from a dozen or so Wolves; also Ion Beam/Tachyon Lance piercing shields with enough hard flux buildup.

[intrinsic_parity]

Beams that fade-out would make weak-ish beams even worse, especially for PD (where Vulcan and Flak reign supreme), unless the fade occurs beyond maximum range like non-beams already do.  Damage fade within range would make the beam (or whatever) unreliable, and the game does not need anymore incentives for ships to get closer simply to fight effectively.

The idea was that the beams are stronger than they are now at the focus point, for instance a 1200 range beam that does 300 dps at 300m 200 dps at 600m 100 dps at 900m and 0 out at 1200m. If the flux per sec was ~150, that would make it reasonably flux efficient at short ranges but just pokey/annoying at long range. Like you said, right now beams have limited use, but you can't just increase damage because that would make them too good at kiting, so this allows beams to be actually effective as weapons without making them too good at kiting.

Alex probably wouldn't want to deal with modifying the AI for this though...