Need help making an effective LAMS

[som3 guy]

basically I want something that will be able to protect my ships against the early factions so they don't get steam rolled.

[p3st|cIdE]

LAMS are not nearly so hard as laser weapons; just need the cavity part, basically. LAMS will need 4Q fire rate (continuous does half damage, not ideal) and you definitely want a doubler and destabilizer on your cavity. A regulator on the laser helps but isn't required. A few hundred DPS sustained damage should be good enough, try not to put so many pumps on your cavity that you drain all your engine power and become unable to move while the laser cavity recharges. An effective LAMS can be built in about a 3x3x4 volume; ideally you put the main delicate laser parts deep inside the ship and use transceivers to send laser power out to your LAMS. They can only fire in a hemisphere, so you need a few pointing different directions (one up, one forward, or one to each side, or all four!). Set them to start firing beyond 500m probably, ignore tiny shells. You'll need AI munition warners or they won't work worth a darn; warners only see like 55 degrees angle so you need at least several facing different directions; I like to put one on a turret that faces the enemy, that covers the essential facing usually.

[p3st|cIdE]

Here's a minimal LAMS:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1789828721

[Existence]

I ripped off the lams of Thyr when i first started using lams. You might as well try that

[FourGreenFields]

Originally posted by p3st|cIdE:

you definitely want a doubler

Just to make sure:
You need 2 AP, but more doesn't help. Munitions of all kinds have an AC of 1, and you need twice the target's AC as AP to deal full damage.
Usually one frequency doubler will be enough, but perhaps not on ridiculously overiszed lasers.

[Ohm is Futile]

Originally posted by p3st|cIdE:

Mostly right

Don't use destabilizers unless you know what you're doing. It's usually much better to just use more LAMS node if you need more burst output than using destabilizers...

3x3x4 is a pretty tiny LAMS, too.

[Draba]

Overall a good generic system for you is:
- 5 storage cavities
- 5 basic cavities completely surrounded by pumps (40 total pump volume)
- 1 frequency doubler
- ~1-5 LAMS nodes limited to 2-400m, depends on the shape of your craft
- 4Q

This can store 16400 damage and does 410 base damage per hit(1 hit most common APS shells, 2 for M missiles).
Can kill ~20 fragile medium missiles or ~3-4 CRAM shells with 20.5 sec recharge.

Things to keep in mind:
- Most early faction missiles are medium size with no body components, so they have ~5-600 HP and ~25 sec reload time
- Big CRAMs have 3770 HP, ~15-20 sec reloads
- That means you want big enough storage to store ~20 seconds worth of energy recharge(storage is much cheaper than pumps+power)
- Setups with clean shape: 1 storage cavity and 1 basic cavity for every 8 pump volume(20.5 sec storage), or using 1 single input cavity for every pump(16 sec)
- Always use output regulator for LAMS, consistent damage output helps a lot
- Make it 4Q, that's the most versatile here
- Need at least 2 AP (more doesn't help)
- Probably a good idea to limit it to projectiles above ~400mm diameter

Add 1-2 destabilizers if you are going up against lots of CRAMS or some big missiles.
That means you'll kill most M missiles in a single hit and a single node has enough burst damage to kill suppressor CRAMs in the ~200m you can detect them.
Does waste a bit more energy against M missiles and lots against APS, check out the enemy before tinkering with destabs.

If you want to shoot down small missiles I'd recommend a small, separate system with ~100 damage/hit. Something like 6 single input cavities/6 pumps, same overall setup.
Gets ~20 decently durable S missiles and takes 16 secs to fully recharge, duplicate if needed.

[p3st|cIdE]

Originally posted by Ohm is Futile:

Don't use destabilizers unless you know what you're doing. It's usually much better to just use more LAMS node if you need more burst output than using destabilizers...

3x3x4 is a pretty tiny LAMS, too.

Sure, destabilizer isn't necessary, but on a tiny LAMS, it helps it get sufficient damage output. More nodes is always good because they tend to get shot off too. Once that tiny LAMS starts to be overwhelmed, OP will have a better idea what he's up against and what he needs to build. It depends on what you're expecting to be up against; for DWG, it's perfectly sufficient, for some of the tougher factions... not so much.